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By Nick Harris
19 November 2010
Gordon Taylor, the chief executive of the Professional Footballers Association, today advocates that leading footballers at each club in England should have some role on the board to gain an insight into how their club’s business operates, and convey that knowledge to a wider audience.
In an interview for the new issue FC Business magazine, published today, Taylor, one of the nation’s longest serving union bosses in any industry, says: “I would like to see players [club captains] on the main board of clubs. I think we need to move towards complete transparency in our game.
“Having the club captain on the board, being made privy to the financial situations and visions of the club and being able to relay that to his teammates can only be good for the game.
“I also advocate the idea of having supporters on the board as well. As long as they are organised this will have only positive impacts on clubs and I’m glad to see that some are heading in that direction.”
In the interview, also published in full today on this website, Taylor expounds his view that the vast majority of footballers – contrary to routine media portrayal – cause no more problems than groups of young men in any other line of work, including the police and the army.
“You can take a horse to water but sometimes a young or old player is just going to do something you never expected,” he says. “You can’t be with them 24/7. The vast vast majority of my members are never any bother at all and as a percentage we have just the same amount of problems as the police, the army or any other business.”
Taylor also cites the example of Joey Barton and his generally improved behaviour of a period of time (a recent punch notwithstanding) as an example of the work the PFA does to assist members who do get into trouble.
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