“Serious mismanagement” at a charity set up to help former and current professional footballers put funds at risk, a Charity Commission inquiry has found.
The inquiry was launched in 2019 because the Commission had “serious concerns” about how the Professional Footballers’ Association Charity – now called the Players Foundation – was being run.
It has now published a highly critical report which details a series of failings.
They include £1.9m of funds from the Football Association being transferred from the charity’s bank account to the Professional Footballers’ Association, the players’ union, “without a clear explanation”.
The charity also paid about 80% of the union’s operating costs – around £6m annually, including £5m on salaries. “Multiple trustees” – including former chief executive Gordon Taylor – held salaried senior PFA roles, creating a conflict of interest.
Funding a trade union is not considered a charitable purpose in law, the regulator said.
The charity also owned properties in Manchester in London which the union occupied rent-free. That cost the charity more than £627,000 when interest was added, the Commission said.
The £1.9m and unpaid rent were returned following the Commission’s intervention.
The charity received an official warning from the regulator in September 2022 “for mismanagement that had taken place from its incorporation in 2013 to the beginning of 2019”.
A trustee, Darren Wilson – who was the PFA’s director of finance – was disqualified from being a trustee or holding a senior management position in a charity for four years.
“Remedial actions have now been implemented at the charity, including proper separation from the union, appointment of new trustees, and establishment of a distinct identity for the charity,” the Charity Commission said.
“It has also adopted a new funding model, after the Football Association and Premier League stopped funding of the charity upon its separation from the union.”
“In this case, the lines between the charity and Professional Footballers’ Association union were blurred beyond distinction, resulting in the multiple instances of conflict of interest and mismanagement at the charity,” Angela Ascroft, critical case lead at the Charity Commission, said.
“Charity trustees have a duty to act in the best interests of their charity, but trustees at the Players Foundation fell dismally short of this expectation and, as a result, let down the players they were supposed to be helping.”
She added the charity “can now focus on helping those it was set up to serve”.
The Players Foundation has welcomed the end of the inquiry and stressed no funds were lost or beneficiaries impacted.
It said in a statement: “When the Commission issued its initial findings in September 2022, it accepted that measures had already been implemented by the Foundation to deal with any concerns.
“No funds were lost; action was taken to correct the financial position of the charity and at no stage were beneficiaries adversely affected.
“The Players Foundation and The Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA) are entirely separate organisations with very different remits – the Foundation officially changed its name from the PFA Charity in July 2022.
“The Trustees’ focus today remains on delivering the best possible charitable support to all our beneficiaries.”
