The team at Sporting Chance wish Gordon Taylor OBE a happy retirement and would like to place on record our gratitude for his support for and involvement with the charity over the last 20 years.
Gordon has held the position of Chief Executive of the Professional Footballers Association for forty years and has been pivotal in our relationship with the PFA since we were founded by former Arsenal and England captain Tony Adams MBE in 2000.
The PFA, led by Gordon, became our first stakeholder and remains our largest partner organisation today. This is largely thanks to Gordon and his colleagues being willing to listen to our purpose and prioritise the mental health and wellbeing of PFA members over the past two decades.
We support, on average, over 600 PFA members per year through our treatment services, including our residential rehabilitation clinic for addiction and our international one-to-one counselling network, which provides treatment for any mental health concern.
We also provide education to around 2000 PFA members across 92 clubs each year on a range of issues relating to mental health in a sporting and lifestyle context.
Our CEO, Colin Bland said: “Sporting Chance has been supporting current and retired professional footballers for over twenty years. The charity now works across many other sports and has supported thousands of individuals in their times of need. We have grown to become the mental health people for professional sportspeople, and I have no hesitation in stating that there would be no Sporting Chance without the foresight and support of Gordon Taylor and the PFA.”
Sporting Chance founder Tony Adams MBE added: “Gordon has been an important part of the Sporting Chance story from the beginning. He and the PFA were willing to listen to my experiences and ideas and have been a permanent ally of the charity ever since. We are very proud to have supported thousands of PFA members with mental health issues and to have educated players at every professional club due to our longstanding partnership. We at Sporting Chance and I personally wish Gordon well in his retirement and thank him wholeheartedly for his support for me and our charity.”