Crystal Palace chairman Steve Parish saved the Premier League season, according to Gary Neville.
The Sky Sports pundit claimed the clumsy bid to cut salaries summed up the Premier League's failure to communicate in the early days of the lockdown.
The Eagles boss was the first club owner to publically back Project Restart last month as the height of the coronavirus crisis.
His intervention – first in his newspaper column and then on Sky Sports Football Show - started a momentum which led top-flight football to return on Wednesday.
“In my opinion that in the early days I think that there was some really poor examples of leadership,” Neville said.
“I do think it's handled the return to play quite well in the last four weeks.
"I think the big turning point for me was Steve Parish's article in the Sunday Times for the Premier League, that was the moment where someone who had a profile stood up and he took the big risk that day when at that time there were hundreds and hundreds of people dying every single day, football was not on most people's mind and not in most people's minds and he gave what would be a sensible position on why football needed to restart and how it could happen.
"I thought he was a turning point for the leadership in this virus. I think that it's easy for us always to point towards the top six clubs in terms of leading in this country but I think the biggest leadership we have seen being demonstrated from Steve Parish, probably Brighton, maybe Southampton there are clubs that really have stood up and put their heads above the parapet and lead.”
