We got him from an agency

Followers of the development at Salford Quays have become used to jobs switching between Peel, the private property group, and the NWDA, the quango that invests taxpayers' money. Now we have, I think, the first move from the NWDA to BBC North.

Ian Haythornthwaite, deputy chief executive of the NWDA, is to become Director of Finance and Sports Rights within Peter Salmon's BBC North. Ian is a Lancashire networker par excellence - before the NWDA he was finance director and then Pro Vice-Chancellor at the University of Central Lancashire. He's been a member of Cumbria Vision for some time (as is Bryan Gray, formerly chair of the NWDA, now chair of Peel Media; Cumbria Vision is led by Roger Liddle, partner of the BBC's Caroline Thomson). He's also finance director of the National Football Museum - currently awaiting re-incarnation in Manchester, after closing in Preston.

Whether the football museum connections are enough to help the BBC regain live FA Cup coverage remains to be seen. There'll be some sniffiness in BBC Sport (currently still in London) that you need more experience than that to win big rights deals.