PRESSURE ON TAYLOR TO QUIT PFA
CHARITY COMMISSION LAUNCHES INQUIRY INTO WAY PFA IS RUN
PRESSURE is again growing on Gordon Taylor to step down from the Professional Footballers’ Association after the Charity Commission took the significant step of launching a statutory inquiry into the trade union’s charity arm.
In what represents a seismic development in a long-running saga, the Commission — which has been investigating the PFA — has disclosed that it still has ‘serious concerns’ following an initial review.
It has now launched a further probe which it says is the ‘most serious intervention’ and will scrutinise whether the PFA charity’s ‘relationship and transactions with other bodies are in its best interests’ among a series of other lines of inquiry.
The inquiry, which is focusing on the Professional Footballers’ Association Charity (PFAC), is expected to look at exactly where the funding for Taylor’s £2.3million salary comes from.
Accounts posted in 2018 for the PFAC, of which PFA chief executive Taylor is a trustee, showed staff costs of £4m. There was no further detail on how that sum was broken down. The shock move comes after Sportsmail triggered the Commission’s initial probe.
In an explosive 2018 interview, PFA chairman and former Walsall player Ben Purkiss claimed how he had become embroiled in a power struggle with 75-year-old Taylor. Purkiss, who may well now feel thoroughly vindicated, demanded reform and an independent governance review but was met with an attempt to oust him on a technicality.
However, following his going public in this newspaper with his views, more than 300 former players called for Taylor to resign and the chief executive eventually agreed to the appointment of an independent QC to conduct a ‘full and open review’, vowing to step down following its publication.
However, 12 months on, that review remains ongoing with no conclusion in sight. Taylor continues to be paid close to £200,000 a month.
No timeline has been set for the statutory inquiry by the government department which registers and regulates charities, but it is understood that it is being treated as a priority. Over the past year, the Charity Commission has been carrying out interviews with trustees and other parties. Despite ‘extensive engagement’ they say they ‘ continue to have serious concerns which have led to the opening of this inquiry’.
The probe will also look at whether the PFAC’s activities ‘have been exclusively charitable and for the public benefit’, ‘the administration, governance and management of the charity by the trustees’, and will be ‘examining how conflicts of interest have been dealt with and managed’. Crucially, it will explore ‘whether there has been any unauthorised trustee benefit’. Finally, it will examine whether the trustees have complied with charity law.
Should additional issues emerge during the course of their investigation, the scope of the inquiry can be extended.
Stephen Grenfell, Head of Investigations, Monitoring and Enforcement at the Charity Commission, said: ‘ The public rightly expect charities to operate to the highest standards — across all they do. Serious concerns have been raised about the way the Professional Footballers’ Association charity is run. We will now examine what has happened at the charity through a full statutory inquiry and ensure, where necessary, action is taken.’
A report is expected which will list what issues were looked at and what actions were taken. The Commission’s powers are aimed at protecting charities. They can disqualify individuals from acting as trustees or taking senior positions at a charity for a set period. They can also freeze bank accounts and issue official warnings and make determinations such as misconduct or mismanagement.
A PFA spokesperson said: ‘The Charity Commission opened a regulatory compliance case into the PFAC in November 2018. The Trustees have continued to co- operate fully, openly and transparently with the Charity Commission and will continue to do so throughout this process.
‘ The PFAC trustees are all committed to adopting the highest possible standards in administering, governing and the management of the charity and will continue to work with the Charity Commission.’
Including Taylor, PFAC has eight trustees. They include former players Brendon Batson, Garth Crooks and David Weir.