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The Daily Mail is calling it Chief Gordon Taylor’s worst day in his 41 years at the PFA.
The current chief has been caught up in a gambling scandal that could ultimately leave him crippled.
The Sun first reported that Taylor wagered approximately £4million on 2,000 bets in 30 months, all the while preaching of the perils of betting to players.
“Don’t fall prey to the betting trap,” Taylor said just two months prior to this week's scandal.
“Footballers are an easy target. They are offered big lines of credit. Every sport is vulnerable, it’s such a big gambling industry and there are problems with syndicates in other countries. There is also the bigger issue on the integrity of the game and trying to make sure that players, in accordance with the rules, don’t get into any trouble by betting on games they are involved in.
“It is not just gambling either, they are approached by unscrupulous ‘advisers’ with property schemes and many players have lost a lot of their income .
“We are trying to educate players to use their spare time to train for a life after football which comes to everybody.
“The clubs now give a lot more thought to players’ lifestyles. It’s part of the curriculum now for young apprentices, which we hope will lead to progress as they continue their careers.
“You can lead a lot of horses to water, but you can’t make them all drink.”
Following the Sun’s allegations, Taylor remained mum and would not speak to the press.
The Daily Mail said he "looked bewildered, bruised and broken after his gambling habit was exposed on the front page of a national newspaper".
Taylor has spent 32 years as chief executive at the PFA and earned a salary of £1,082,615, reportedly making him the best-paid trade unionist in the world.
From the Daily Mail:
Taylor is expected to go public in an attempt to explain his gambling habit, which is said to involve betting on Barclays Premier League games and an England international. He has not broken the PFA's rules, but he has breached an ethical and moral code by gambling on the matches that his members are playing in across the country. He is also guilty of making public statements about the evils of gambling while at the same time squandering industrial amounts of money on wagers across a bewildering array of sports.
- Alistair Prescott, Gambling911.com
