It's a sign of the chaos at Liverpool that the appointment of a Chelsea fan as chairman is seen as a good result.
After a long career with BAT, BA and the CBI, Broughton has joined LFC to sell the club for American owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett. Here's what you need to know about him...
1) Broughton, who celebrated his 63rd birthday two days before becoming chairman at Anfield, has been a Chelsea supporter for 56 years.
2) The businessman was born in Fulham but claims Stamford Bridge "was marginally shorter walking distance" than Craven Cottage from the family home, where his disabled dad repaired bus and car seats for a living. The family missed TV coverage of Chelsea's 1965 League Cup win because they didn't own a TV set until young Martin was nearly 20.
3) Broughton's no-frills upbringing probably explains why he he and his twin brother prefer to have their season tickets in the Matthew Harding Stand than in Chelsea's plush executive boxes.
4) The BA chairman sought an early end to talk of a strike last Christmas because he wanted to be free to watch Chelsea against Portsmouth on December 16. In the end, however, the industrial action was only called off after he won a court injunction on December 17.
5) He laughs off the idea that a Chelsea supporter can't run Liverpool. He said: "Yes, I am a Chelsea fan, but first and foremost I am a very keen football fan. Football is a passion. Liverpool is an institution, it's been a great club, it needs to be a greeat club and that's what I'm committed to."
6) Broughton began work at a small accountancy firm in 1965 and might have stayed there but says he became determined to succeed in business after hearing a park football team-mate talk about his new job as a jet-setting executive with Coca Cola. He joined top accountancy firm Peat Marwick in 1970, went to British American Tobacco as an auditor a year later and became chief executive of the fags firm in 1993. He joined British Airways as chairman in 2004 and was president of businessman's lobby group the CBI in 2007.
7)/b> His business career has been marked by controversy. While at BAT Broughton caused a stir when he claimed that he would never like to see his two children smoking, and became embroiled in a row at BA when the company banned an airport worker from wearing a crucifix.
After the launch of BA's new Terminal 5 at Heathrow was beset by technical problems in 2008, Broughton refused to give embattled chief executive Willie Walsh a vote of confidence, saying: "Willie and I are both keen soccer fans. We are both aware that the chairman's vote of confidence is often the last act before the manager goes."
9) Despite his love for football, Broughton has a passion for National Hunt horseracing. He's a regular at tracks around the country, owns eight horses and was chairman of the British Horseracing Board between 2004 and 2007. He says his biggest gaffe is failing to buy Best Mate early in the Cheltenham Gold Cup hat-trick hero's racing career.
10) Broughton says a chairman should be like a good referee: It's when you don't notice him, but everything around him works well, then you say 'great game'."
