The new leaders of the PFA have decided against publishing an independent review of the crisis-hit organisation, despite widespread calls for greater transparency.
The QC-led report, which was prompted by a power struggle between the then chief executive Gordon Taylor and chairman Ben Purkiss in 2018, led to widespread change within the PFA, including the ousting of Taylor, the highest-paid trade union leader in the country, after 40 years at the helm.
Maheta Molango replaced Taylor in July after an independent appointment process, while a new players’ board was created, in what was seen as a break from the past. But it is Molango and that board, The Times can reveal, who have voted against making the details of the report public, potentially protecting Taylor and other senior members of the PFA hierarchy — many of whom remain at the organisation — from further scrutiny. PFA members are being informed of the decision, made at its annual meeting on Wednesday.
Sources claim the review contains “incredibly damning” detail on the Taylor regime, including concerns about his £2 million-a-year salary and the culture that developed during his four-decade tenure. The PFA remains the subject of a Charity Commission inquiry.
In May, when John Mousinho took over as chairman of the PFA, he indicated that he wanted the review to be published, saying it would “show how far we have come”. Molango, 39, attempted to defend the decision by claiming that players wanted the union to focus on the future rather than the problems of the past.
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“The decision has been reached by the new players’ board, the voice of the dressing room,” Molango said. “I’m very conscious people will be against this. When you lead an organisation you need to make decisions. It’s a collective decision but I am the chief executive and need to take responsibility and accept criticism.
“I have the feeling that people were just fed up hearing the PFA talk about itself. I think people wanted the PFA to focus on what matters, on the players, rather than the internal turmoil and bickering and infighting. The feeling was people just want to be talking about the players as opposed to the less player-linked issues we have had in the past.”
It was put to Molango that he could be accused of protecting long-serving Taylor allies who remain members of the PFA executive.
“I understand where you are coming from,” he said. “But I don’t need the report to come to conclusions on who is fit for purpose or not. Publishing it will have no influence on the staff of the PFA. I don’t need a report to be published to know what to do.
“The PFA needed to improve how it was doing things, rather than what it was doing. We need to be more policy-driven, more governance-driven. Being bulletproof in terms of policy, governance and oversight.”
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Molango, the Swiss-born former Brighton & Hove Albion forward, insisted that the PFA had evolved.
“There is now a level of transparency that has never been seen before,” he said. “I talk to the chairman four times a week, weekly calls with the board, bi-weekly diaries go to the members to tell them what I am doing. I cannot be more transparent about what I am doing.
“If someone thinks not publishing the report is not transparent there is little I can do. Maybe there’s a point in that. But it’s not the way I am.”
