TAYLOR CAN’T SURVIVE REVIEW
for Portland Communications said he was unable to confirm whether Taylor’s future was on the agenda.
Taylor has faced calls to resign from his £2.2million-a-year role after a series of revelations by this newspaper led to the Charity Commission launching an investigation into the PFA.
Last month Taylor confirmed that the PFA board of trustees and the management committee had appointed the independent arbitrators at Sport Resolutions to conduct ‘a full and open review into the structure and operation’ of the union.
It was Purkiss who initially called for the independent review which, given the issues uncovered by Sportsmail’s investigation, is sure to leave Taylor’s position untenable. Purkiss went public on the PFA’s civil war last November, giving an explosive interview to
Sportsmail after Taylor (below) informed the 92 PFA club delegates that the AGM had been adjourned because an issue had arisen with the eligibility of Purkiss to remain in his post.
But Purkiss not only had the backing of key members of the PFA management committee but soon found he had support from some of the biggest names in the game as more than 300 current and ex- players backed the 34-year-old in his call for change. Purkiss complained that, with tens of millions of pounds sitting in the PFA bank accounts, the union had spent only £125,000 on funding head injury research. Sportsmail was also first to report that the PFA could be in breach of trade union rules because Taylor had somehow avoided having to stand for reelection in almost four decades at the helm when regulations demand an election every five years.
Concerns have been raised by former players, including former Bradford City winger Jamie Lawrence, about financial advice and the lack of support they received from the PFA.
Sportsmail revealed that the union appeared to be in breach of Charity Commission rules when it emerged that Paul Elliott had been allowed to remain a trustee when he had an IVA (an individual voluntary arrangement) to pay debts to creditors.
Elliott later resigned, with PFA company accounts stating his position as a trustee had been ‘terminated’.
A much-respected figure in football, Elliott explained in a statement that he had been ‘a victim of financial fraud’.