Players’ anger over all-white PFA panel

A NUMBER of the Premier League’s black players and coaches have complained to the PFA over the union’s decision to appoint an all-white selection panel to begin the process of replacing chief executive Gordon Taylor. Sportsmail has been told that there is unhappiness at the narrow composition of the three-person panel, to be chaired by former England defender Gary Neville, on the grounds that it does not reflect the fact that around 30 per cent of PFA members are black. Neville’s panel is completed by PFA Board member Edward

Canty and Oxford defender John Mousinho, who is also on the PFA management committee. The trio have been tasked with appointing four independent non-executive directors, who will then lead the search for a replacement for Taylor, 75. In a statement announcing the formation of the selection panel the PFA said that the directors chosen would lead ‘a robust, independent and transparent recruitment process’. But the failure of the PFA’s leadership to adequately reflect the membership is a source of frustration to many players. Former West Ham winger Bobby Barnes has a senior role as one of two deputy chief executives but there is no other ethnic minority representation. There is only one black player — Manchester United’s thirdchoice goalkeeper Lee Grant — on the 13-strong management committee. As a result a number of disillusioned black players and coaches have held talks about forming their own union or pressure group to support others from minority backgrounds.