Murthy graduated with a degree in electrical and mechanical engineering from Paris, and a master's degree from
INSEAD Business School. He went into the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs as deputy chief of mission to Paris and permanent delegate to
UNESCO for four years. In April 2017, Singaporean businessman
Peter Lim made a change at
Valencia CF, the
La Liga football club he had owned since 2014, by replacing president
Lay Hoon Chan with Murthy, effective from July. Murthy had been an executive consultant at the club since the previous November. Valencia won the
Copa del Rey on 25 May 2019, beating
FC Barcelona, but manager
Marcelino was sacked in September. Murthy rejected Marcelino's claim that he was dismissed for putting resources into winning the cup instead of the league. It was reported that the players were not speaking to Murthy and vice versa, out of their support for Marcelino. In November 2019,
director of football Mateu Alemany was fired; he later said that he had received no reason from Lim or Murthy. Murthy took over his role and proposed a change in the club's statutes so he could be paid up to €2.7 million for the role, given that board members could not be paid under the club's constitution. During Valencia's centenary in 2019, Murthy proposed remodelling the
Nou Mestalla stadium, which had been half-finished for 10 years after €125 million investment. He said that the initial model was of an Olympic stadium and needed to be modernised for football. In December 2021, he proposed a new plan to
President of the Valencian Government Ximo Puig: a three-tiered ground holding 43-50,000 with expansion possibility to 60,000, smaller than the 2009 plan. Valencia's administration were in a dispute with the Curva Nord supporters' group, who wanted more tickets for the 2019 final. The group ceased their cheering activities and insulted Murthy online, who responded by saying he would suppress them and called them the English insult "twats". A new group "La Curva de Mestalla 1919" returned in July 2022 after Murthy's exit. In 2021, Murthy surpassed
Manuel Llorente as the president of Valencia in service for the longest duration in the 21st century. It was noted that part of his mandate had no crowds due to the
COVID-19 pandemic. In May 2022, audio messages of Murthy were leaked by Valencian sporting newspaper
Super Deporte, in which he called
Liverpool and
Newcastle upon Tyne "shit cities" and was interpreted as calling Lim an amateur. He also said he would run a
smear campaign against players
Carlos Soler and
José Gayà should they leave. Murthy said he was misinterpreted and had called Lim
un aficionado, which can mean a fan as well as an amateur in Spanish. He said that his point about the English cities was how they have passionate football support without the favourable weather of Valencia. He said that he had resigned, in response to numerous headlines saying he had been dismissed. ==References==