Before there was Phil Spencer—thematically speaking, that is—there was Peter Moore: charismatic, engaged, and very high profile, at least by the standards of your typical game industry exec. He rolled up his sleeve to reveal the Halo 2 release date tattooed on his arm at E3 2004, for instance, an act he followed up a couple years later with Grand Theft Auto 4.
Moore left the game industry in 2017, parting ways with Electronic Arts to become CEO of famed football club Liverpool FC. He had a successful run—Liverpool won the UEFA Champions League, FIFA Club World Cup and the Premier League during his tenure—but his contract was not renewed, and in 2020 he was replaced.
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“My American owners did not agree. They did not like the fact that I engaged with fans on social media. They felt it was unstatesmanlike. 99% of the time, it was very much: ‘Thank you for traveling.’”
While it doesn’t sound like he agrees with that assessment, Moore said there was one social media post in particular he’d take back if he could: After a match that saw Norwich City defeat Manchester City, “a huge shock” that Moore said “was one of those turning points” in Liverpool’s pursuit of the Premier League title, he tweeted a picture of a canary, a reference to Norwich City’s nickname, The Canaries.
“Within 15 seconds, I’m seeing 3,000 likes, 4,000 likes,” Moore said. “I then thought: ‘Maybe I shouldn’t have done that.’ And I shouldn’t have. My WhatsApp lights up: ‘Take it down’. It was stupid. It was unstatesmanlike, unprecedented, all the words that my performance review reflected that year.
“The fans loved it, but I shouldn’t have done that.”
Moore said it was “a big shock” when his contract wasn’t renewed in 2020, and despite the passage of time, he clearly still misses it: “I will not lie, when the cameras pan, as they often do, to the Liverpool Director’s Box, and I catch a glimpse of where my seat was… that’s hard.”
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