Graham Kelly: Chairmen fail to intimidate Taylor

As acrimony burst into the Professional Footballers' Association/football authorities dispute over television money following the issue of strike notices last week, you did not have to hunt too deeply to find the sub-plot. The PFA chief executive, Gordon Taylor, always knew strong-arm tactics would soon be applied to his stocky frame.

The Chelsea chairman, Ken Bates, complained that Taylor had ridiculed the chairmen and he likened him to Arthur Scargill. David Gold, of Birmingham City, taking time out from attempting to lure Steve Bruce from Crystal Palace, accused Taylor of empire-building. At least Taylor's organisation has no association with the pornography industry as far as we are aware.

Then Bradford City chairman, Geoffrey Richmond, suggested that if the players went on strike, the clubs could use non-contract and youth players instead. Could you just see that happening? The ubiquitous Doug Ellis, of Aston Villa, said he would see the players in court, which would be a novelty, for during the last major dispute to afflict football, when the Football League sued the Football Association in an attempt to prevent the establishment of the Premier League in 1992, Ellis, being both a board member of the Football League and also a prospective Premier Leaguer at the time, deemed it prudent to remain at home.

So much for making the chairmen appear ridiculous, but what, briefly, about Bates' other charge, namely that the union leader is becoming like Scargill? Bates failed to realise how apt this analogy was, because, in their rush to denigrate Taylor before the settlement, the chairmen demonstrated, like Margaret Thatcher with the miners, that no one could be allowed to stand up to their all-encompassing power. Bates may have forgotten that Scargill's union was smeared by allegations of financial impropriety – in a newspaper controlled by a football club chairman who went on to swindle his pensioners when times got hard, Robert Maxwell.

Let's turn now to the altogether more chilling aspect of the pre-agreement developments, and confirmation that Taylor was not crying wolf when he started shouting about the issue some months ago, when negotiations had already dragged on for a year.

It lies in the comments not of those we have already considered, but in the contributions to the debate of men regarded as having substance in the game. At the very moment the chief executive of the Premier League, Richard Scudamore, was assuring everyone that it was not trying to put the PFA out of business, David Dein, the vice-chairman of Arsenal and of the FA, spoiled it by offering to set up a new players' welfare fund.

If the time and interest devoted to the discussion of players' interests amounts to five per cent of the time allocated to commercial matters since the Premier League started in 1992, I'll eat my bobble hat. "Vocational minutes received, gentlemen? Lunch is served". Dein's successful business career obviously did not teach him that employees' organisations do not like to be patronised.

Peter Ridsdale, the chairman of Leeds United, promised his players he would stop their wages if they didn't turn out, because it was the television money which paid the wage bill. This shows how much the game is in hock.

David Sheepshanks, the Ipswich Town chairman, concurred, and told his newspaper of choice that not only would his club fine players the maximum two weeks' wages, but also said a strike would lead to summer lay-offs at all clubs.

Adam Crozier, the chief executive of the FA, was seen as someone with the qualities needed to bring the two sides together, but, though the governing body likes to appear to be above the fray, constitutionally it comprises the clubs and is bound to line up with them. It was no more able to adopt a neutral position in this dispute than it was in any attempt by supporters to oust an unpopular chairman, no matter where individual sympathies might privately lie.

Good luck to the Premier League which negotiated a brilliant television contract last year. I've no idea how many noughts it has on the end. But there was never any doubt in my mind that the PFA, which possessed the acknowledged track record in matters of education and health care, was entitled in the good times to its full and historic percentage, to provide a proper umbrella for later, when costs escalate and television is no longer so bountiful.

There is no other body around with the guts, the standing, and the nous to stand up to the Premier League chairmen when they get the bit between their teeth. The FA is often compromised, the supporters usually powerless and the politicians always clueless.

Thank heavens then for the PFA, which has shown respect throughout.

grahamkelly@btinternet.com