Maheta Molango’s annual salary as the chief executive of the Professional Footballers’ Association has risen by a staggering 30 per cent, with the union linking the increase — to £650,000 — to the cost of living crisis.
When Molango took charge in June 2021, his pay was set as part of a governance review that identified concerns around the fact that his long-serving predecessor, Gordon Taylor, was earning more than £2 million a year.
As part of the recommendations, the 41-year-old Swiss lawyer, who played professionally for Brighton & Hove Albion and Oldham Athletic among other clubs, began his new role on a salary of just over £500,000.
However, in what amounts to his first pay review since succeeding Taylor, Molango has been given a significant boost that has been backdated in line with the Consumer Prices Index (CPI).
The present economic crisis has led to a dramatic rise in the price of consumer goods and services in the UK. This month the Office for National Statistics said the CPI rose by 6.7 per cent in the 12 months to September 2023, down from a recent peak of 11.1 per cent in October 2022.
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This, sources claim, was taken into account when the PFA determined a rise for Molango, who runs the Manchester-based organisation from its London offices.
As part of the governance review, the system for setting the chief executive’s salary at the PFA has undergone a significant overhaul.
For Taylor, who was appointed PFA chairman in 1978 before taking over as chief executive in 1981, decisions on pay were taken by the business advisory committee of the then PFA charitable trust when Taylor was a trustee of the charity, as well as chief executive of the trade union.
It emerged that the committee was chaired by Gareth Griffiths, a former footballer and a trustee and board member of the PFA who was also the co-founder of an independent wealth management company that was a partner of the PFA and was endorsed on its website by Taylor.
Since the appointment of Molango, who like Taylor is the highest-paid union boss in the UK, a restructuring of the PFA has led to a far more independent process. A remuneration committee, composed of members of the PFA’s operational board and players’ board, arrives at a figure that is then put to the two full boards to be signed off.
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The PFA is the trade union for professional players in England and Wales, with about 5,000 members from the Premier League, the EFL and the Women’s Super League. At the same time, close to 50,000 former members retain access to the union’s benefit schemes, including education and wellbeing support.
The organisation declined to comment on Molango’s salary but when a rise of £150,000 was put to the organisation, it was not contested.
The remuneration committee is said to set salary rises against CPI, while it is understood that Molango is partly being rewarded for the £125 million five-year deal he struck with the Premier League last year.
Insiders also argue that the union’s published accounts will eventually provide transparency concerning the salary of their chief executive.
That said, Molango did tell members in December 2021 that a decision had been taken to limit publication of an independent review of the PFA that was prompted by a power struggle, in 2018, between Taylor and the chairman at the time, Ben Purkiss.
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It is believed that the review was highly critical of the PFA’s leadership under Taylor.
“Reflecting what we have heard from members, the decision has been made — alongside the players’ board and the operational board — that, having released a summary of the recommendations in November last year, we will not be publishing any more material from the independent review,” he said.
