PFA’s Taylor under mounting pressure
How long will Gordon Taylor remain as chief executive of the Professional Footballers’ Association now that he, and his monumental salary of £2.2million a year, is under severe challenge?
Taylor has been in office for an unchallenged 37 years and it has been argued that the nature of his role means he cannot be removed by a vote. However, PFA chairman Ben Purkiss has called for a review.
Purkiss has made a special point of condemning Taylor’s lack of effective action over the vexed issue of dementia and footballers. And here I have a grain of sympathy for Taylor.
While I have huge sympathy for the family of Jeff Astle, the former West Bromwich Albion and England centre- forward, whose sadly early death was definitely ascribed to heading the ball, I am forced back to my previous position, which is to say that so utterly beyond all doubt heading is often responsible for dementia – Stiles, Wilson, Peters, et al – that the only possible solution is to ban heading altogether. Alas, it is plain that this will never be done.
Some players – Alan Shearer, Geoff Hurst, Dixie Dean – went on heading goals throughout their distinguished careers with no hint of damage. Others, alas, did not.
It would be a lottery or a gamble, but if the one valid solution is to ban heading altogether, do you think such a move would ever gain sufficient support among players and coaches?