The Player’s Foundation (formerly the Professional Footballer’s Association Charity) has been handed an official warning by the Charity Commission after a detailed investigation found it has been ‘mismanaged’ over a six-year period from 2013 to 2019.
Whilst the Commission accepts that the charity has since taken steps to address a number of concerns it is currently considering whether to take any further action against the Charity’s Trustees.
The Charity Commission’s inquiry into the Player’s Foundation
The Commission found “various failures of management” including;
- A failure to ensure its assets were being used in the most appropriate way and in particular a failure to review a longstanding relationship with, and payments to, a trade union. The trade union for professional footballers, the Professional Footballers Association, is now a totally separate legal entity.
- Failure to appropriately manage and control £1.9m of charitable funds transferred from the Charity’s accounts.
- That arrangements regarding the occupation of properties owned by the Charity by non-charitable entities were against the Charity’s best interests as there were no formalities, such as lease agreements, in place and no rent had been charged. The Commission estimated this had cost over £627,000 of income to be lost to the Charity.
- The Charity’s accounts had, at one point, declared ‘staff costs’ of £4m with no breakdown. Elsewhere in the accounts, it stated that “no salaries or wages have been paid during the year”.
The importance of good governance within charities
The findings of this investigation serve as a reminder to all charities of the importance of good governance and the need to regularly review matters. It is important to stop from time to time, and it is recommended that, on at least an annual basis, to ask whether the current agreements and relationships you have are still in the best interest of your charity and, if not, whether they need to be amended or terminated.
This investigation also underlines how important it is that everything the charity does should ultimately serve to further its charitable objectives and in so doing be in the charity’s best interests.
How Nelsons can help
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