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PFA under pressure to address CEO Gordon Taylor's 'absolutely scandalous' £2.3m salary and bonus
The Professional Footballers’ Association is under pressure to address Gordon Taylor’s “absolutely scandalous” salary and bonus after it emerged he earnt almost £2.3 million last season - £44,000-a-week.
Members of the Digital, Culture, Media & Sport select committee have called for the PFA to review what its long-serving chief executive was paid following the near doubling of the £1.3m he took home the previous year.
The PFA’s accounts also showed it put only £100,000 into concussion and head injury research in the year ending June 30, with campaigners branding the disparity “a kick in the teeth”.
Reputedly the highest-paid union boss in the world, Taylor’s pay and benefits package caused uproar three years ago when it emerged he had earnt more than £3.3m in one season, more than £1m more on average than the Premier League players he represented.
Labour MP Ian Lucas condemned the 73-year-old’s latest pay packet as “horrendously excessive”.
He told Telegraph Sport: “People have had enough of salaries at this level.
“At a time when, real wages in this country haven’t increased since 2004, I think your average football supporter will be appalled.
“It’s time that the PFA looked at the situation. I really think they should be looking a bit more closely at the arrangements that are involved.”
Conservative Julian Knight said: “It seems an extraordinary salary, one that is akin to, you would imagine, many mid-table Premier League footballers.
“Precisely what value he offers for that sort of range of salary, that really is a question that needs to be answered and leads one to question the management at the PFA.”
Comparing Taylor’s salary to the leader of one of Britain’s biggest trade unions, Unite, Knight added: “He’s probably worth about five Len McCluskeys. Now, there’s an image for you.”
Lucas and Knight were both part of the select committee which heard evidence from Football Association chairman Greg Clarke in October when he accused the PFA of spending “millions” on Taylor's salary at the same time as “walking away from alcoholics, addicted gamblers”.
Taylor, who has now earnt more than £16m in the last 12 years, angrily denied the union had not looked after its members and threatened to sue Clarke if he repeated the claim outside parliament.
Reacting to Taylor’s latest pay packet, former Chelsea and England defender Graeme Le Saux, a member of the FA Inclusion Advisory Board, posted on Twitter: “Absolutely scandalous.”
Ex-Crystal Palace chairman Simon Jordan concurred, adding: “No justification for it and no reason for it and no right to it... only planet football.
“By the way this does not come from player subs it’s from Premier League distribution to PFA.”
The chief executive of the PFA since 1981, there were calls for Taylor to go last year over its response to the campaign for research to be conducted into the link between playing football and dementia, which it and the FA finally commissioned in November.
Dawn Astle, daughter of former West Bromwich Albion legend Jeff, who died as a result of repeated impacts to the head while playing football, demanded his head again on Sunday.
She told The Sun: “It’s like a kick in the teeth. He is accountable to no one and should go and give the job to someone more in touch.”
Taylor’s pay in 2016-17 included a basic wage of almost £1,188,765, a bonus of £777,183 and £271,300 in employers’ National Insurance contributions.
He also got a £41,246 car allowance, private medical cover worth £8,984, and utilities’ benefits worth £2,798.
Taylor, who said in 2010 his pay “pales into insignificance compared to bankers”, did not respond on Monday night to requests for comment.