The legacy of a secret dinner

Premier League's Sir John Quinten and Rick Parry in '94

The Men who Changed Football part two
BBC Two Tuesday 20 March 2100GMT

A BBC documentary has revealed how a secret dinner between the then ITV Sport chief Greg Dyke and the 'Big Five' clubs sowed the seeds of the English Premier League.

As football began to feel the financial strains in the late 1980s, dissatisfaction with the old Football League had grown.

However, it was only when Liverpool, Everton, Manchester United, Tottenham and Arsenal bosses, met with Dyke in 1990, that the foundations of the modern game were realised.

Noel White, then Liverpool director, remembered: "The meeting with Greg Dyke we saw as a possibility of moving forward in our aim to break away from the football league and form our own, what was then the super league, now we know it as the Premier League."

Power struggle

The dinner was intended to say thank you to the top clubs for ITV Sport's TV rights contract.

But it took place at a time when the Football Association's overall authority was being challenged by the Football League.

As the crisis in the sport mounted, the Football League suggested a more power-sharing approach, but the idea was not well received.

The FA thought the league's proposals were a serious threat to their authority over the game

  Former FA chief Graham Kelly

Former FA chief Graham Kelly said: "Both league's proposals for change in 1990/91 "one league, one game, one voice" went down like a lead balloon at the FA.

"The members thought that the league had too narrow a focus and that the FA should remain the governing body and should remain in control of the game.

"They felt that only they had the breadth and vision to look after the game at all levels."

While the FA was not likely to relinquish control of the game, it realised the need for change.

As football rode the crest of a wave following the national team's success in the World Cup of Italia 90, at home, cracks were already showing.

BBC director general Greg Dyke headed up ITV Sport

Post Hillsborough, clubs were struggling with bills for building the all-seater stadia recommended by Lord Justice Taylor's report into the disaster.

Saatchi and Saatchi director Alex Flynn advised the FA: "A showcase top division would benefit the national team , and would probably be a license to print money."

So when Arsenal vice-chairman David Dein and Noel White, spurred on by their meeting with Dyke, went to see the FA, the timing was perfect.

"It was very important they were brought on side early on," said Dein

Within two years, the new Premier League was up and running, and the modern era of English football was born.

The revelations come from BBC's new documentary series "The Men who Changed Football".

It charts football's rise from working-class game to money-spinning industry in which big clubs prosper and smaller clubs struggle for survival.

The second part of the documentary tells how a handful of astute businessmen transformed English football in to a multi-million pound industry through backroom deals and clandestine pacts.