Gordon Taylor is going... but don't expect that to happen any time soon

Gordon Taylor announced on Wednesday that he was to stand down as the chief executive of the PFA
Steven Paston/PA Wire
Tony Evans28 March 2019

It is dangerous to take anything Gordon Taylor says at face value. The chief executive of the Professional Footballers' Association (PFA) is a superb strategist and fine negotiator.

When it was announced on Wednesday that he will be stepping down as head of the players’ union, it seemed like the end of an era. The 74-year-old is in no hurry to retire. Why would a man earning £2.3million a year jump off the gravy train?

The conditions for Taylor’s departure are almost as convoluted as the Brexit voting. He will step down only when the independent review into the organisation conducted by Sports Resolutions and led by Thomas Linden QC has been completed.

Then, a successor has to be found and appointed and a “controlled transition period” completed. The earliest he could leave is November but the process set in motion on Wednesday is likely to continue well into next year. Taylor has been in his role for 38 years. It is not beyond the realms of possibility that he will celebrate four decades in charge.

As usual, the chief executive dispatched his enemies. Ben Purkiss, the chairman who forced Taylor into commissioning the independent review, will leave too, as will the entire management committee. They will not be able to take up a role at the PFA for five years afterwards. The civil war within the PFA is over but the smell of scorched earth pervades their Manchester HQ.

There is widespread dismay about the fate of Purkiss. One senior figure who asked not to be named said the 34-year-old’s treatment on Wednesday was “outrageous”. Purkiss, he continued, “was only trying to bring transparency and proper standards of governance to the PFA”.

Daniel Geey, a partner at Sheridans law firm and author of Done Deal: An Insider’s Guide to Football Contracts, Multi-Million Pound Transfers and Premier League Big Business, agreed. “A clean sweep seems sensible but Purkiss understands the issues and started the process,” he said. “It might have made sense to keep him on board.”

A number of problems need to be addressed by the review. Some of the fiscal advice given to PFA members has been described as “amateurish”.

A financial arm of the union went bust 10 years ago with debts of more than £1m. Former Bradford winger Jamie Lawrence spent 16 months chasing his pension after the PFA lost his details. Insiders say that preferential treatment is given to high-profile Premier League stars at the expense of lower-League journeymen.

Many in the game believe that Taylor’s attitudes are anachronistic. Clarke Carlisle, a former PFA chairman who has struggled with depression, said the union’s approach to mental health was not “fit for purpose”.

Race has also been a thorny issue for the PFA. Taylor was instrumental in the creation of Kick It Out and a number of anti-discriminatory initiatives but there have been rumblings for the past decade that black players might set up their own association. There is a distinct feeling that the PFA have failed them.

Taylor also appears to have underestimated the seriousness of issues like dementia, despite evidence that heading the ball contributed to the deteriorating mental condition of a number of ex-pros. In 2017, the union paid just £100,000 to dementia research, even though they have assets of about £50m.

Dawn Astle, whose father Jeff, a striker for West Brom and England in the 1960s and 70s, died in 2002 as a result of a degenerative condition caused by repeated head trauma, has been a consistent critic of Taylor. “I am very pleased he is stepping down,” she said. “I’ve lost faith in the PFA’s ability to protect their members when it comes to dementia.

PFA chief Taylor has been in his current role since 1981 
Getty Images

“My dad died but there could be thousands of others out there like him. The PFA are meant to support them. Their existence is about player welfare but they have completely failed in their duty to try and understand dementia. They have let my dad down, they’ve let my family down and they’ve let football down.”

Rick Parry, the first chief executive of the Premier League, “crossed swords” with Taylor but does not doubt his love of the sport. “He cares about the game and the players,” Parry said. “But he should have left a decade ago. Taylor will be remembered for the way he has handled his departure. A clean break would have been better.”

Taylor’s office is a shrine to football. His desk is a glass-topped display of medals, caps, tickets and memorabilia from the greatest moments in the game’s history. The walls are adorned with shirts, posters and artefacts that take the breath away. The LS Lowry painting that infamously cost £2m 20 years ago barely stands out among the historic items piled around his workplace.

It is all for the edification of one man, though. And Taylor sits among the relics, as much a museum piece as anything on show. Reform will not begin until a new chief executive takes charge and brings the PFA into the 21st century.

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