PFA

Full name	Professional Footballers' Association
Founded	1907
Members	4000
Country	England and Wales, United Kingdom
Affiliation	TUC, GFTU, FIFPro
Key people	Gordon Taylor, chief executive
Website	www.thepfa.com

The Professional Footballers' Association (PFA) is the trade union for professional association footballers in England and Wales. The world's oldest professional sport trade union, it has 4,000 members.

The aims of the PFA are to protect, improve and negotiate the conditions, rights and status of all professional players by collective bargaining agreements.^[1]

The PFA is affiliated with the Professional Footballers' Association Scotland. The Northern Ireland PFA disbanded in 1995.^[2]

History[edit]

The Players' Union[edit]

"Outcasts FC" photograph taken before the 1909–10 season.

The PFA was formed on 2 December 1907 as the Association of Football Players' and Trainers' Union (the AFPTU, commonly referred to at the time as the Players' Union). On that date, Charlie Roberts and Billy Meredith (who had been involved in the AFU), both of Manchester United, convened the Players' Union at Manchester’s Imperial Hotel.

This was the second attempt to organise a union of professional footballers in England, after the Association Footballers' Union (the "AFU"), formed in 1898, had been dissolved in 1901. The AFU had failed in its objectives of bringing about a relaxation of the restrictions on the movement of players from one club to another in the Football League and preventing the introduction of a maximum wage of £4 per week for players in the Football League.

Like the AFU before it, the Players' Union intended to challenge the maximum wage and the restriction on transfers, in the form of the "retain and transfer" system.

Threatened strike action in 1909[edit]

When the Players' Union made its objectives clear in 1909, the Football Association withdrew its recognition of the Union, which at that time was seeking to join the Federation of Trade Unions (‘FTU’).

In response, the Union threatened strike action. The Football Association in turn banned players affiliated with the AFPTU before the start of the 1909–10 season. The ban saw membership of the Union fall. However, players from Manchester United refused to relinquish their membership. League clubs turned to amateur players to replace players that had been banned, but Manchester United were not able to find enough replacements, risking the cancellation of their opening fixture at home to Bradford City. The Manchester United players were called "Outcasts FC".^[3]

The deadlock swung in favour of the Union when Tim Coleman of Everton came out in support of the Union. Coleman's intervention resuscitated support for the Union, which regained its strength of numbers. Agreement was reached on official recognition for the Union in exchange for allowing bonus payments to be made to players to supplement the maximum wage. The maximum wage remained for more than another half century.^[4]

Continuing battles with the Football League[edit]

The 1910s saw the Union backing a challenge by Herbert Kingaby against the retain and transfer system in the courts. Kingaby brought legal proceedings against his former employers, Aston Villa, for preventing him from playing. The Players' Union funded the proceedings. Erroneous strategy by Kingaby's counsel resulted in the suit ending disastrously for the Union.^[5] The Union were almost ruined financially and membership fell drastically.

Although membership increased from 300 in 1915 to well over 1000 by 1920 this did not herald a new era of radicalism among the rank-and-file. Widespread unemployment heralded declines in attendance at Football League matches at a time when many clubs had, once again, committed themselves to expensive ground improvement programmes in the expectation that the post-war spectator boom would continue indefinitely. Inevitably, this caused financial difficulties at many clubs. Clubs believed their problems were due to players' excessive wages rather than over-expansion. In the spring of 1922, they persuaded the League authorities to arbitrarily impose a £1 cut to the maximum wage (£9 a week at that time) and force clubs to reduce the wages of players who were on less than the maximum. Legal proceedings backed by the Players' Union this time established that clubs could not unilaterally impose a cut in players' contracted wages.^[5]

Between 1946 and 1957 the Chairman of the Union was former Portsmouth captain Jimmy Guthrie. His book 'Soccer Rebel', published in 1976, documents his chairmanship and the struggle of the Union to improve the lot of professional footballers in the years preceding the abolition of the maximum wage.

Modernisation[edit]

In 1956, Jimmy Hill became secretary of the Players' Union. He soon changed the union's name to the Professional Footballers' Association (the "PFA"), changing a blue collar image to one in keeping with the new wave of working-class actors and entertainers.^[6]

In 1957, Jimmy Hill became chairman of the PFA and campaigned to have the Football League's £20 maximum wage scrapped, which he achieved in January 1961.^[7] His Fulham teammate Johnny Haynes became the first £100 player.

The PFA also backed George Eastham in his legal action against the retain and transfer system, providing him with £15,000 to pay for his legal fees. The case was brought against his former club, Newcastle United, in the High Court. In 1963, The Court held that the retain and transfer system was an unreasonable restraint of trade.

PFA Awards[edit]

In 1974, the PFA created three awards to be given to players – or people who have contributed a lot to the game – every year. The first is the Players' Player of the Year award, given to the player voted the best of the season by his fellow players. The second is the Young Player of the Year award, given to the young player voted the best of the season by the PFA. The third is the Merit Award, given to the person who has contributed the most to football over the season, as voted for by the PFA.

In 2001, they created another award; the Fans' Player of the Year award, given to the player voted the best of the season by the fans. In 1974 they introduced yet another award; the Team of the Year award, given to eleven players in each league (forty-four players in total) who are deemed the best of the season by the PFA.

Present day objectives[edit]

In association with other football bodies, the PFA are the managing agents for the "Football Scholarship Programme" and the "Football in the Community Programme".

It is a member of the Institute of Professional Sport and FIFPro – the confederation of international football players' unions – as well as the Trades Union Congress. Its current chief executive is Gordon Taylor, a former player with Blackburn Rovers. Many of the key personnel within the PFA are also ex-professionals, including Deputy Chief Executives John Bramhall and Bobby Barnes.^[8]

The PFA also fund various education programmes for ex and current players. The oldest is a link with the University of Salford which has been running since 1991 and which by 2007 had seen over 70 players complete degrees in Physiotherapy. Additionally players complete Sports Science degrees from Manchester Metropolitan University and Professional Sports Writing and Broadcasting degrees at Staffordshire University,^[9][10] in addition to other programmes including fitness training, training to become driving instructors and various other initiatives.

The PFA also funds a residential rehabilitation scheme that allows any injured member to attend the Lilleshall Sports Injury Rehabilitation centre for physiotherapy and sports injury treatment free of charge to the player or club. The scheme is designed to complement the medical care available at the players own club. Many club Physios refer their players to Lilleshall with the intention of providing a change of environment. This helps to maintain the motivation & interest of long term injured players. The free sports injury and physiotherapy services are based at the Lilleshall Hall National Sports Centre in Shropshire.^[11][12]

Centenary[edit]

2007 brought along the 100th year since the foundation of The Players Union, and to commemorate the centenary year, the PFA launched their "One Goal One Million" campaign. The campaign involved a whole year of celebratory fund-raising activities with the aim of raising £1 million to fully fund a new children's rehabilitation and physiotherapy unit at the University Children’s Hospital, Manchester. Throughout the year the PFA ran a number of high-profile events involving current and former players and managers with the sole purpose of reaching the £1 million target.^[13] Events included a pro-celebrity golf event, race days and initiatives involving younger supporters. On the day that the PFA was formed in 1907 – 2 December – there was a match between an England Legends XI – captained by Alan Shearer and managed by Terry Venables – and a World Legends XI – captained by Gianfranco Zola and managed by Jürgen Klinsmann – culminating in a gala dinner in the evening involving a host of top entertainers.

In December of the centenary year, the PFA issued Fans' Favourites; a list of the favourite players at each Football League club. In making the selection, the PFA canvassed the opinions of the supporters of present, and some former, League clubs about their favourite player.^[14]

Key personnel[edit]

Management committee[edit]

• Chairman: Clarke Carlisle (Northampton Town)
• Brede Hangeland (Fulham)
• Darren Moore (Burton Albion)
• Phil Neville (Everton)
• Gareth Owen (Port Vale)
• Jason Roberts (Reading)
• Neil Cutler (Retired)^{[citation needed]}
• Gareth Griffiths (Retired)^{[citation needed]}
• Marcus Hahnemann (Everton)^{[citation needed]}
• Chris Hope (Corby Town)^{[citation needed]}
• Scott McGleish (Enfield Town)^[15]
• Paul Mullin (Retired)
• Gary Neville (Retired)
• Ben Sedgemore (Retired)

Past Chairmen[edit]

• Jimmy Guthrie
• Jimmy Hill
• Gordon Taylor
• Brian Marwood
• Derek Dougan
• Garth Crooks
• Pat Nevin
• Barry Horne
• Nick Cusack
• Dean Holdsworth
• Chris Powell

Chief Executives[edit]

• Chief Executive: Gordon Taylor
• Deputy Chief Executive: Bobby Barnes
• Deputy Chief Executive: John Bramhall

PFA Executives[edit]

• Richard Jobson
• Martin Buchan
• Nick Cusack

See also[edit]

• The Players' Union
• The Football Association
• Professional Footballers' Association of Ireland
• Football Writers' Association

References[edit]

Further reading[edit]

• Jimmy Guthrie (1976). Soccer Rebel: The Evolution of the Professional Footballer. Pentagon Books. ISBN 0-904288-08-0. 

External links[edit]

• The Official website of the Professional Footballers' Association