AHEAD OF THE GAME

MOLANGO THWARTED IN BID TO SELL PFA’S LOWRY PAINTINGS

New PFA chief executive Maheta Molango has been thwarted in a bid to sell some of the union’s collection of LS Lowry paintings to raise money for good causes.

Sportsmail has learned that after the former Brighton striker replaced Gordon Taylor earlier this summer following an extraordinary 40-year stint in charge of the PFA, Molango enquired about selling the paintings to help increase the union’s funding of services for ex-players, including those suffering from dementia.

Molango was told that the collection of Lowry paintings, which are valued at more than £3.5million, were the property of the PFA charity, however, and as a result they do not fall under his jurisdiction.

The 39-year-old was appointed as PFA chief executive following an exhaustive recruitment process that took more than two years after Taylor announced his intention to stand down, but the union’s charity arm remains a separate entity.

The PFA have attracted controversy by paying considerable sums for Lowry paintings at auctions over the last two decades, with the collection being made available for people to view at Salford Art Gallery.

The union’s first purchase was the iconic 1953 painting Going to the Match, which was bought at Sotheby’s for a record £1.92m in 2009, with three more pictures being secured for £1.65m six years later.

The PFA have been widely criticised for the amount of money they provide to dementia research, only around £125,000 a year, despite the union receiving £25m annually from the Premier League, a situation Molango wants to improve.