United's players will join strike says Taylor

Martyn Ziegler
Saturday 13 October 2001 00:00 BST
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

The chief executive of the Professional Footballers' Association, Gordon Taylor, claims he has the support of the Manchester United players and manager Sir Alex Ferguson in the bitter dispute with the Premier League over television money.

Taylor visited United's training complex at Carrington yesterday. "I spoke to Roy Keane, Ryan Giggs, Andy Cole, Ruud van Nistelrooy and Gary Neville and they were all very supportive of the PFA," Taylor said. "David Beckham was not there but he is very close to Gary Neville and he too knows about all the issues involved.

"Sir Alex understands our position well and he has also been supportive, which we very much appreciate."

The dispute is over whether the PFA should receive its customary five percent of television money, or around £25m a year of the Premier League's TV deal with Sky and ITV, £40m in all when the Football League and FA's TV deals are added.

The Premier League argues the PFA does not need that much to service their players' education and welfare funds, and have offered £9.85m a year, £1m more than the previous deal. Ballot papers for a vote on a boycott of televised matches by players will be sent out in the middle of next week. The dispute is certain to end up in the High Court if the players vote in favour of industrial action.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in