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07
Jun
The Harrogate lawyer who became English football's most powerful figure
How does a lad from Harrogate become the only person in history to chair both the Premier League and Football Association?
Peter McCormick, founder of McCormicks Solicitors, has walked on the hallowed turf of Wembley with Prince William, joined the board of his beloved Leeds United and overseen the most watched football league on the planet.
But, two months ago, he brought the chapter of his life to a close so he could return home to Harrogate.
In a wide ranging interview with the Stray Ferret, Peter talks about his time as a lawyer, joining as a director of Leeds and working his way up to the top of the Premier League and FA.
‘I’m usually in London’
On a sunny Monday morning, Peter McCormick sits in his boardroom in the shadow of Harrogate Convention Centre and Crowne Plaza.
Its been a while since he has had time to frequent his offices at McCormicks. “I’m usually in London,” he says.
After stepping down from the Premier League and Football Association in April, he now hopes to spend a bit more time in Harrogate.
But his story does not begin in the spa town which he now calls home.
Peter McCormick.
Born in Leeds in 1952, Peter grew up in Headingley a short walk from the cricket ground.
He suffered from asthma, made worse by the mills and industrialised nature of Leeds in the last century.
His doctor advised his family to move to Harrogate, if they could afford it, to escape the pollution. They moved to what was colloquially known as Appleyards corner, which is now the M&S on Leeds Road.
The doctor was right, because I grew out of the asthma. I used to suffer from pneumonia. I used to have bronchitis every winter. Then suddenly, by the time I was in my early teens I was playing cricket for Harrogate Colts and I was playing football for the school team.
Peter was always into sport. He was a keen footballer, playing Sunday league football from 15-years-old against the likes of Broadacres pub on Knaresborough Road, which is now the Co-op.
Even after his father went bankrupt and the family moved to a flat on Leeds Road, he would still head to the Stray to practise shooting and play cricket.
Peter was educated at Clifton House prep school before he went onto Ashville College, where he became a prefect despite the headmaster “totally disapproving of someone who liked football rather than rugby”.
In those days, students were pushed towards applying for Oxford and Cambridge. Instead Peter wanted to go to university in London “where the action was”.
Much to the annoyance of my headmaster, I had no desire to go to Oxford or Cambridge. I was the original inverted snob. I thought it was full of posh people riding bicycles with gowns on.
He studied law at King’s College London. He returned to Leeds in 1974, where he took up an articled clerk position with Levi & Co under the mentorship of Jack Levi — a well-known lawyer in Leeds who was frequently in the Yorkshire Evening Post.
Mr Levi and his senior partner Michael Lawrence showed Peter the ropes. He described it as the “finest training ground you could ever have” for solicitors and lawyers.
Peter’s training consisted of frequent trips to the magistrates courts around Leeds, which would later be complemented by a “foul mouthed” office culture.
But, the mentorship of Mr Levi worked and he later became equity partner owning 20% of the business.
Peter with colleagues at McCormicks Solicitors ahead of a move to new offices in 2024.
Nine years later, he left and set up McCormicks Solicitors in Leeds with his wife Kathryn. He later opened in Harrogate in 1987.
The transition to owning his own firm was a baptism of fire — he had little staff and not a lot of money to take on trainees.
According to Peter, his former colleagues at Levi & Co were also jokingly telling old clients that he had emigrated to Australia, had been jailed for fraud and on one occasion that he had died!
Regardless, the company went from strength to strength and opened a Harrogate branch in 1987.
In the same year, Peter took an opportunity to step into the football world and work his way into his beloved Leeds United.
It’s here that his journey into the Premier League begins.
‘Always kick a door open if you can’
In 1992, the Premier League formed as a break away league from the old English Football League after founder clubs opted to drive for more revenue from TV broadcasting.
During the early 1990s, Peter was on the board at Leeds and had been advising the league on its constitution as well as attending shareholder meetings on behalf of his club.
In November 1996, with his feet under the table at the Premier League, Peter was appointed onto a formal legal working party alongside representatives from Manchester United, Norwich City and Southampton — a position which he kept until April this year.
Three years later, after he had already stepped down from Leeds United, he got his big break.
Richard Scudamore was due to be appointed as chief executive of the Premier League in November 1999. Peter planned to welcome him with open arms.
This is the ‘always kick a door open if you can’. I had a diary note which said: ‘Monday 8th November. Richard Scudamore starting as chief executive of the Premier League. Peter to be in London by 08.30’.
The charm offensive worked.
Peter struck up a relationship with Richard. By November 1999, he was senior external legal advisor to the Premier League board.
His time at the league saw him hold various roles. He chaired the football board and legal advisory group, both of which were executive positions.
But it was in 2014 when he took up a key position.
In the summer of that year, Anthony Fry, chairman of the league, stepped down after he suffered a stroke.
Kathryn and Peter with the FA Cup trophy.
Peter was ordered into a meeting, where he initially thought he was going to be asked to leave. Instead, he was offered the job as chairman — which he held until June 2015.
For Peter, the chairman is effectively a politician who has to manage the interests of 20 teams.
The role of the chair is you have to be a politician with a small “P”. You have got Brentford, Crystal Palace and Bournemouth. But then you’ve got Manchester City, Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal.
The interests of those clubs differ so much and their funding and ability to compete differs so much. You have got to try and manage everybody in the way they need managing to keep everybody on side.
Peter would later go on to be elected chair again in 2022 and become the only person in history to oversee both the Premier League and Football Association.
The resignation of Greg Clarke
On November 10, 2020, Greg Clarke, the then chairman of the Football Association, was forced to resign after making inappropriate comments before a parliamentary select committee.
Mr Clarke used the term “coloured” to describe black, asian and ethnic minority people and recounted an anecdote about female footballers being afraid to be hit by a ball.
At one point, he also suggested that “different career interests” led south Asian people to choose careers in IT over sport.
The exchanges with MPs was held remotely due to the coronavirus pandemic and was watched by the entire country, including Peter.
Peter said:
He just about offended 85% of this country in five minutes.
At this point, Peter was already a director at the FA after being elected by the Premier League to represent it on the board in 2015. He had also served as FA vice chairman and chaired the professional game board on the governing body.
Within 20 minutes of Mr Clarke finishing his select committee appearance, Peter was asked to become chairman of the FA.
Peter with Prince William.
An emergency meeting was called for 4pm to formally appoint him to the board. He held the role until January 2022.
For him, the role meant defending the organisation in public and ensuring that the message over what work the FA had done was put across.
“We really had to go out on the front foot and we did some really good work.”
"It has been the ride of all time"
Peter’s career at the top of English football has been colourful.
From walking onto the pitch at Prince William to shake hands with the players at the FA Cup Final to attending the Euro 2020 final and sitting alongside former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the roles have provided some big sporting occasions.
But, for Peter, the highlights of his career are bittersweet. He points out that his father died before he took up senior roles at the Premier League and FA.
He lived to see me do well and he lived to see me on the board at Leeds United. But he never got the chance to the Premier League stuff and FA.
He never got the chance to see me walking out onto the pitch with Prince William to see me shake hands with the players at the cup final and sitting with Boris and the King and all that business at the Euros final.
The landscape of English football has changed dramatically in Peter’s time at the Premier League and FA. Broadcasting deals are now worth billions of pounds and nation states are involved in football clubs.
For Peter, his time at both organisations is over and he looks forward to a new role at Leeds United which will keep him closer to home.
But how does he sum up his career?
It has been the ride of all time. It has been incredible.
Tomorrow in the second part of our interview with former Premier League chairman Peter McCormick, he talks about his time at Leeds United and his new role at the club.
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