BURNLEY boss Sean Dyche believes the Professional Footballers’ Association remains as relevant as ever, despite question marks over its future.

The PFA – the union for current and former players – is set to be under review, along with long-serving chief executive Gordon Taylor, following intense pressure and criticism about how it operates.

The review comes in the light of more than 300 former players endorsing an open letter calling for reform, for Taylor to step down and for an election, while families of some former players living with dementia feel the PFA has not done enough to help and support them.

In addition, some have queried whether the PFA is still essential given the vast amounts of money earned by players at the top level.

But Dyche said the PFA was not just there to help with finances but a range of issues, including health and wellbeing, and was still important for players at all levels.

“They offer various different things – financial and advice, and with health and wellbeing I think they’ve done a lot of good and they continue to do so," said Dyche.

“Forgetting about what’s going on now, the concept is that it’s impartial. It’s there for you (as players). There’s no agenda. It’s just ‘Do you need help? We’ll help you’.

“That’s a good situation to be in. That seems to me a pretty easy, sensible trustworthy view when dealing with someone, when I look back at the PFA back in the day, that just wants the best for me.

“It’s a bit grey now – do the club help, do the PFA help, does the agent help, does the family help? There are a lot more helplines open, but even that can bring confusion.

“Sometimes you just need someone to go ‘Right, you need that’. It was probably a bit more straightforward when I was playing compared to now.

“Nearly always the PFA could help, and if they couldn’t they would find someone who could, in my experience.”

He added: “I can only speak of my dealings with the PFA as an individual and mine were always top class – from Gordon, Nick Cusack (assistant chief executive), Bobby Barnes (deputy chief executive), people like that.

“I wouldn’t go to Gordon about any individual matter but I know him a little bit from down the years.

“They’ve been very helpful to me, always supportive, always clear-minded in their opinions and never forceful, just saying ‘be wise with that, be careful with that; we’ll back you on this, we’ll support you,’

“In my experience they’ve been excellent.

“I’m not up to date with the facts to be fair. If I had more facts I’d give you a more informed view on Gordon’s situation but I don’t really have all of the facts of what’s been going on because I haven’t been in the PFA for years.

"But I’m a big supporter of them generally because of how well I was treated.

"Now obviously it’s the LMA for me, which I’m equally a big supporter of because of how they’ve treated me and how they’ve supported me through my time as a manager.”