TAYLOR GOING... BUT WHY NOT NOW?
PFA chief to quit at end of the season – and he’ll pocket another £1m before clearing his desk
GORDON TAYLOR will step down as chief executive of the crisis- hit Professional Footballers’ Association by the end of the season. Taylor, 75, has been in situ for more than 40 years, and is likely to earn another £1million before he departs — taking his total earnings from the trade union since agreeing to step down in March 2019 to around £5m.
In what some see as an attempt to control the narrative and shape the future of the PFA beyond his exit, Taylor also released some recommendations from the independent review into the organisation which was triggered when chair Ben Purkiss challenged his leadership in this newspaper in 2018.
The QC-led report, which insiders have told Sportsmail is ‘ scathing’ about various individuals, including Taylor, remains unpublished. Indeed, the crisis communications firm Portland, recruited after civil war erupted following Purkiss’s challenge, say it will not be made public because of the ‘sensitive and commercial’ information contained in it.
In the summary which has been released, no names are mentioned and no examples of bad practice are divulged in what seems to be a whitewash of the findings of the QC-led review carried out by Sport Resolutions and finished in July.
The move makes a mockery of the PFA’s promise of an open, transparent process. Any criticism of Taylor and his leadership has effectively been buried, although a statutory inquiry by the Charity Commission is ongoing.
‘Why wait, why not go now?’ said Sportsmail columnist Chris Sutton, who has been a critic of Taylor and his failure to address the dementia scandal, about which this newspaper is campaigning for action.
‘This is Taylor going out on his own terms, dictating to the very end.
‘It is handy how, between now and then, he’ll take home, what, another £1million? If only that sort of cash could be made available for something as important as the members of your union who are dying from a despicable disease.’
The comments were echoed by John Stiles, son of World Cup winner Nobby, who called on Taylor and his leadership team to stand down immediately.
‘This is just the beginning of necessary change,’ said former Leeds defender Stiles, who has branded the union’s treatment of ex-players suffering from dementia and other illnesses as a ‘ scandal’ and a ‘disgrace’. ‘ We have seen false dawns before.’
Unelected Taylor has long been the highest-paid union official in the UK. He announced at the AGM in March last year that he would leave, along with Purkiss and the rest of the management committee, as soon as a successor was appointed. While that process has been ongoing, the hefty payslips have continued to land.
The changes set to be implemented at the PFA, which Taylor claims are the ‘ gold standard for any modern sporting organisation’, have been branded wide-ranging in some quarters. However, many of Taylor’s longstanding allies are expected to remain in post. Indeed one, finance director Darren Wilson who Sportsmail revealed was paid £350,000 a year, will take a place on the new operational body, but will not have voting powers.
The new CEO, expected to be paid around £500,000 a year, and four nonexecutive directors will make up the rest of that board, which will oversee the day-to-day running of the PFA and sit below a newly created players’ board, which will serve as the ‘ultimate decision-making authority within the union’.
The summary of the review adds: ‘one of the most significant recommendations made... is that the PFA should introduce a new governance structure’. It continues to say that the new structure will ‘ ensure greater scrutiny and accountability of those in governance roles’.
Other recommendations include for the business advisory committee, which sets the salary for staff including Taylor, to be disbanded and a review of the co-opted trustees of the PFA’s charity arm to ensure those with the relevant skills come on board.
It also identifies the need for an ‘increase in transparency’ around decision-making and a ‘safeguard against conflicts of interest’, stating that a new budgeting process should be brought in along with an IT audit and annual staff survey.
Taylor’s successor is to be selected by four non-executives, to be identified by a three-person panel of advisers — ex-Manchester United captain Gary Neville, Oxford United defender John Mousinho and PFA board member Edward Canty. They will be assisted by a recruitment agency.
Taylor ended his letter by stating: ‘We have already made substantial progress in that direction’.
In total, Taylor’s letter, a list of recommendations and a progress report, consisted of 4,710 words. ‘ Dementia’ was not among them.