Tottenham Hotspur held their first board meeting of the post-Daniel Levy era on Friday, but the Lewis Family were not directly involved.
Levy was in charge of Tottenham for 24 years, and in that time, he oversaw an impressive off-pitch transformation at the club, but had trouble translating that to on-pitch success, particularly since 2019.
The Lewis family have said that they want to usher in a new era of on-pitch success at Tottenham, which sees the club compete for the biggest trophies in the game.
However, some experts have warned that Levy’s exit leaves a big vacuum at Spurs, and a new report has now explained the challenges the new leadership structure is facing while transitioning.
Who is calling the shots at Tottenham?
The Athletic have now revealed that Peter Charrington chaired the first meeting of the post-Levy board on Friday, marking a historic break with the last 24 years.
However, the report makes it clear that it is CEO Vinai Venkatesham who is now the most important individual at Spurs, having been given full control to steer the wheel.
The first official meeting of the new-look board also included operations and finance director Matthew Collecott and independent director Jonathan Turner.
Vivienne Lewis and her son-in-law Nick Beucher will meet the Tottenham staff at an event after the meeting, and will also attend the Premier League game against Wolves on Saturday.
While the Lewis family have the ultimate power, they do not want to get their hands dirty on the day-to-day operations, which will be overseen by Venkatesham, who will also serve as the public face of the club.
The report explains that Levy created a particular personal culture at Tottenham as he had ultimate power, and Spurs have faced challenges in finding a new way of working and organising the club after his departure.
The club are now trying to transition from their old model of an all-powerful executive chairman to one where the executive team is empowered.
Daniel Levy’s work was under the scanner from the start of 2025
The Athletic say that while Levy’s sacking may have come as a shock to the former Tottenham chairman, it was in the pipeline for a long time.
It is revealed that the Lewis family had increased their scrutiny of the club’s affairs since the start of the calendar year and were trying to find out why Spurs were underperforming on the pitch.
In fact, the significant staffing changes, including the appointment of Charrington to the club’s board and Venketeasham as the CEO, were done with Levy’s potential exit in mind.
The Lewis family had even hired a United States-based management consultancy firm, Gibb River, to speak to senior staff at Tottenham to ascertain what was going wrong at the club.