Gordon Alexander Taylor OBE (born 28 December 1944) is an English former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugb ...

who played as a winger. He was chief executive of the English footballers' trades union, the

Professional Footballers' Association The Professional Footballers' Association (PFA) is the trade union for professional association footballers in England and Wales. Founded in 1907, it is the world's oldest professional sport trade union, and has over 5,000 members. The aims of ...

, for over 40 years, between 1981 and 2021. In March 2019 it was reported that he is to stand down after the completion of a "full and open review" into the PFA's finances is presented at its 2019 AGM, along with its entire management committee and chairman

Ben Purkiss Benjamin John Purkiss (born 1 April 1984) is an English former professional footballer and former chairman of the PFA. Having failed to break into the Sheffield United first team, he joined Gainsborough Trinity in 2003. He spent four years at t ...

. He is reputed to be the highest paid union official in the world. The 2020 PFA AGM is scheduled for 26 November, and is expected to appoint four non-executive directors. In September 2020 the chair of the all party group on gambling, Carolyn Harris voiced her reservations on gambling related harm exampled by the Union's CEO. Taylor was born in

Ashton-under-Lyne Ashton-under-Lyne is a market town in Tameside, Greater Manchester, England. The population was 45,198 at the 2011 census. Historically in Lancashire, it is on the north bank of the River Tame, in the foothills of the Pennines, east of Manche ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancas ...

. He played over 250 matches for

Bolton Wanderers Bolton Wanderers Football Club () is a professional football club based in Horwich, Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in . The club played at Burnden Park for 102 years from 1895 after moving from their original home at Pik ...

and scored more than 50 goals before being transferred to

Birmingham City Birmingham City Football Club is a professional football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. Since 2011, the first te ...

in 1970. He joined

Blackburn Rovers Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club, based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second tier of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. Th ...

in 1976 and spent the 1977 close season playing in the

North American Soccer League The North American Soccer League may refer to: *North American Soccer League (1968–1984), a former Division I league *North American Soccer League (2011–2017) The North American Soccer League (NASL) was a professional men's soccer league ba ...

for the

Vancouver Whitecaps Vancouver Whitecaps Football Club is a Canadian professional soccer team based in Vancouver. They compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member club of the league's Western Conference. The MLS iteration of the club was established on March ...

. He returned to play for Blackburn and finally Bury before retiring in 1980 to work full-time for the PFA. Taylor earned a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University o ...

in economics from

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degr ...

in 1969 as an external student. In 2007, he was a member of

FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' (French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

's football committee. He is an alumnus of

Manchester Metropolitan University Manchester Metropolitan University is located in the centre of Manchester, England. The university has over 40,000 students and over 4,000 members of staff. It is home to four faculties (Arts and Humanities, Business and Law, Health and Educat ...

. He was appointed

Officer of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established ...

(OBE) in the

2008 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 2008 for the Commonwealth realms were announced on 29 December 2007, to celebrate the year passed and mark the beginning of 2008. The recipients of honours are displayed here as they were styled before their new honour, and ...

. His mobile phone messages were allegedly hacked by a

private investigator A private investigator (often abbreviated to PI and informally called a private eye), a private detective, or inquiry agent is a person who can be hired by individuals or groups to undertake investigatory law services. Private investigators of ...

employed by the ''

News of the World The ''News of the World'' was a weekly national red top tabloid newspaper published every Sunday in the United Kingdom from 1843 to 2011. It was at one time the world's highest-selling English-language newspaper, and at closure still had one ...

'' newspaper. ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...

'' reported that ''

News International News Corp UK & Ireland Limited (trading as News UK, formerly News International and NI Group) is a British newspaper publisher, and a wholly owned subsidiary of the American mass media conglomerate News Corp. It is the current publisher of ...

'' (the owner of the ''News of the World'') paid Taylor £700,000 in legal costs and damages in exchange for a confidentiality agreement barring him from speaking about the case.

References

Infobox statistics * * Specific {{DEFAULTSORT:Taylor, Gordon 1944 births Living people Footballers from Ashton-under-Lyne English footballers Association football wingers British trade union leaders Bolton Wanderers F.C. players Birmingham City F.C. players Blackburn Rovers F.C. players Vancouver Whitecaps (1974–1984) players Bury F.C. players English Football League players North American Soccer League (1968–1984) players Officers of the Order of the British Empire People educated at Ashton-under-Lyne Grammar School Alumni of University of London Worldwide Alumni of the University of London Alumni of Manchester Metropolitan University English expatriate sportspeople in Canada Expatriate soccer players in Canada English expatriate footballers English sports executives and administrators