Simon Greenberg, the former Mail on Sunday, News of the World and Evening Standard sports journalist, is to join News International as its director of corporate affairs, it was announced this afternoon.
Greenberg moves back to Wapping after a year working as chief of staff for England’s 2018 World Cup bid.
As the NI press release today stated, while working on the bid, Greenberg “was responsible for the strategic co-ordination of the bid’s campaign covering communications, international relations, PR, marketing and public affairs”.
England’s bidultimately attracted just two votes from FIFA’s 22 executive committee members, resulting in an embarrassing elimination after just one round of voting.
Greenberg carried much of the blame for the manner in which the England bid handled itself when the other NI Sunday title, the Sunday Times, and later BBC’s Panorama, investigated FIFA’s bidding “process”.
Greenberg, who has had spells as sports editor at both the News of the World and the Standard, joined the World Cup bid team from Chelsea FC, where he had been media director since since 2004, shortly after Roman Abramovich took over the club. During his time there, he was rumoured to be on a salary of £200,000, and he spent a spell studying “executive leadership” on the Harvard Business School’s advanced management program.
According to NI’s press release today, “In this new role, Greenberg will report to Rebekah Brooks, Chief Executive. He will become a member of the Executive team and will lead a dedicated corporate affairs function at News International.
“Rebekah Brooks said: ‘Simon has great experience at very high levels in professional sport and the media making him ideal for this new and wide ranging corporate affairs role. I am delighted that he will be joining News International in such a senior capacity.'”