TV cash talks heap pressure on Taylor

Negotiations over £26m funding under threat Three hundred back call for players’ chief to quit

Scrutiny on Gordon Taylor, chief executive of the Professional Footballers’ Association, intensified last night after it emerged that his organisation is still in negotiations with the Premier League over its core funding from next year.

Taylor is facing an unprecedented challenge to his 37-year tenure amid the circulation of a letter that has been signed by more than 300 current and former players urging him to stand down and the organisation’s own chairman, Ben Purkiss, calling for an independent review.

The Telegraph can also disclose details from the latest PFA Charity accounts and how, despite extensive talks, no agreement has yet been reached with the Premier League over television income from 2019, that has been worth almost £52million to the PFA over the past two seasons.

Consistently securing such a large slice of the broadcast deal has been critical to maintaining Taylor’s authority but, with a debate raging within football over his position, the backdrop to these current negotiations could shift.

Publication of accounts filed with Companies House in recent days will also once more infuriate families who have been campaigning for greater care towards former players who are suffering from dementia and other serious medical conditions.

The accounts, for the PFA Charity, report that staff costs rose in the year until June 2018 by £280,000 to above £4million. In that same period, the benevolent grants to individual former players and their families had gone up by only £35,000 to £565,261, and the PFA’S contribution to the study into the link between football and dementia stood at £125,000. As of June 30 this year, the charity held funds of just over £55million.

The PFA is currently embroiled in a civil war after Purkiss had his eligibility to continue in his post as chairman questioned because he became a non-contract player at Walsall. The annual general meeting, which was due to be held today, has been adjourned and the PFA’S legal advice is that Purkiss cannot continue as chairman.

Purkiss suspects that he is being removed because he is challenging an organisation that has been run by Taylor since 1981. His own legal advice is that he is eligible to remain chairman and that the PFA has previously allowed non-contract players to be members.

The dispute has come at a crucial stage of funding negotiations with the Premier League which, under outgoing executive chairman Richard Scudamore, tried in 2001 to cut the PFA’S income. Taylor then balloted the players and, having won resounding backing for a strike, the Premier League was forced to compromise and the PFA’S income has largely remained intact.

The past anger, though, was summed up by David Gold, joint chairman of West Ham, who accused Taylor of “empire building”. He added: “Tell me one business in this entire universe which gives £25million to support a union? I find that absolutely extraordinary.”

It is unclear whether there is a similar appetite to challenge the PFA’S settlement, although the current agreement, which runs from 2016 to 2019, includes strict stipulations on how the money is used.

The Premier League said yesterday that “a significant majority of the funds provided are spent on charitable and good causes, and football development” and that only “a small proportion of what the Premier League provides is available to be used at the PFA’S discretion”.

Beyond a figure of £4.04million for staff costs, there is no specific detail in the new accounts of Taylor’s latest remuneration, which in the trade union’s annual return in 2016-17 totalled £2.29million. The details of other main outgoings are listed, however, and they include £3million to Premier League youth development, £6.5 million to the Football League’s community fund and youth development and £1.2million to the Football Conference’s community fund. Sporting Chance receives £400,000 and the spend on councillors has risen from just over £230,000 to more than £333,000. The “cost or valuation” of the PFA’S memorabilia investments had also risen over the year to £9.68 million from £8.82 million.

The PFA argues that it is important to maintain significant reserves in the context of a funding model that is underpinned by “short-term” television deals. Taylor has always defended how his organisation spends money and, in the annual report of trustees, it is said that 393 benevolent grants were agreed, as well as 1,440 educational grants. It also outlines how 468 members accessed counselling for issues such as anxiety, depression and addiction.

Former players, however, are now openly questioning whether the PFA should in fact be doing much more. “This is about an independent review into the organisation because it’s not doing enough to help players and especially explayers,” said Danny Murphy, the former Liverpool midfielder.

“This isn’t a crusade against Gordon Taylor. It’s about an organisation that has the capacity to help hundreds of people who are in desperate need and they are not doing enough. They have a percentage of the TV money which isn’t being passed down the line to those in need.”