Football and the Coronavirus

You don't seem to understand that it's not the players making the decision to furlough staff and not them. It's greedy owners protecting their own wealth! Owners won't force wage reductions on players because of the fear of losing that player for nothing. The whole thing comes back to the greed of those owning and running the clubs, not players.
 
Would be nice to see more of the Tottenham players standing up using their morals though right? Hey, lets not lay off the staff, we'll take a pay cut if you like to help them out as long as we get paid back when you are raking in the millions again.

I've not seen a single on of them state what the owners are doing is wrong, maybe if they bothered they wouldn't be the targets, right?
 
Journey said:
Would be nice to see more of the Tottenham players standing up using their morals though right? Hey, lets not lay off the staff, we'll take a pay cut if you like to help them out as long as we get paid back when you are raking in the millions again.

I've not seen a single on of them state what the owners are doing is wrong, maybe if they bothered they wouldn't be the targets, right?
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As has been reported already, all PL captains are currently in talks regarding the creation of a fund where all players in the League will donate a proportion of their wage to the NHS. Talks regarding this reportedly have been going on before the hypocritical public shaming. Many players will have already made significant donations to various causes too and do so all year. Maybe footballers aren't as greedy as you think and don't just do things for appearance? For example Alder Hey hospital in Liverpool announced that it received a significant donation from a footballer that wished to remain anonymous.

Players cannot control what clubs do regarding furloughing other staff and taking advantage of government grants that they don't need and, imo, is far better that they take their pay in full in these circumstances and then donate it to where it's needed most rather than subsidise the greed of those above them.
 
Yes players should take all of their wages, keep £2,500 per month maximum, and donate the rest to good causes that is a great idea.

It still doesn't help the fact that I am paying taxes for the furloughed staff though does it? You might not care, but I do. Players can't make the clubs do anything, supporters can't make the clubs do anything, who can? Answer stop supporting the club? Stop putting money into the pockets of those greedy owners and executives, stop buying shirts, stop going to see games, and stop paying for Sky Sports. Money talks right? If people weren't so hypocritical they'd do this if they dislike how much money the people at the top get.

I guarantee that you'll have an answer that is to keep on giving money to the clubs, and therefore making yourself the hypocrite, right?
 
Journey said:
It still doesn't help the fact that I am paying taxes for the furloughed staff though does it? You might not care, but I do.
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You previously said you don't care if they're furloughed as long as it's the same for everybody :confused:
Journey said:
I don't care if the furlough staff, as long as it is a level playing field and they are all treated equally (expect the owner of course who cannot be forced to do anything they don't want to). If they furlough normal staff, then furlough the players then they'll have something to complain about on £2.5k per month.
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So again if you're annoyed at the fact that clubs are furloughing non playing staff, especially when they're rich enough not to, then complain to the greedy owners not players.

As for the general rant at the end. I really enjoy football and spend a fortune on supporting Liverpool so as much as I think players earn too much, I cannot complain about it because I feed it.

edit: and while there's this much money in the game then I'd rather it was going to players than owners.
 
BaZ87 said:
This is exactly the reaction Daniel Levy and Matt Hancock wanted. Footballers are and always have been an easy target and will now be used to cover up the failings and greed of others.

Who benefits from PL players taking pay cuts? There will be some clubs that aren't generating huge amounts of cash and aren't owned by multi billionaires that will need players to take cuts or deferals to survive however a big chunk of PL clubs do generate significant cash and or are owned by extremely wealthy individuals.

Take Spurs as an example. They just released their accounts for last season and had an EBITDA (basically cash profit before interest and tax is paid and some paper expenses are deducted) of £168m - they are generating more than enough cash to pay everybody at the club in full without the need for outside help. Even if they did need outside help, their accounts also showed that Daniel Levy paid himself a £3m bonus for completing their new stadium project, despite it being massively delayed and over budget. That £3m was on top of his £4m salary which was already considerably more than any other PL director. Levy owns just under 30% of Spurs (worth well in excess of £1bn) with the other 70% owned by a multi billionaire tax exile Joe Lewis. If Spurs players take a pay cut then who benefits? Well not the government as there will be less tax being paid on players saleries. The only people that benefit are Daniel Levy and Joe Lewis. Matt Hancock got his cheap headline to cover up his own failings though.

Millionaires taking pay cuts to benefit billionaires.

You didn't read the "if the season can't be finished part" did you? ;)

If the season cannot be finished then there are two extreme options, void the season and use last seasons table (something UEFA reportedly are against) or use the current standings, whether that be exactly as things stand or based on points per game to make up for games in hand. PPG or current standings still wouldn't have Sheffield Utd in 5th. And whether we use last season or the current standings/ppg, Chelsea would still be in the CL.
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I’m assuming your an Arsenal Fan ? Your talking about one person here , not a full squad who’s average wage is just totally behind ridiculous .
 
UEFA have lifted the 3pm TV blackout for the remainder of the season.

Opens it up to games behind closed doors. How will they do it though so every game can be shown?

Maybe Sky and BT will have a temporary section of EPL match day channels, or a deal could be struck and Amazon could do it. Very impressed by their recent coverage.
 
Unless Amazon come up with a big chunk of money for both the PL and Sky/BT then I can't see them showing any more games. Sky & BT have paid for live coverage of games and will not want their viewing figures watered down by Amazon or any other broadcaster showing games at the same or similar times. It's not like Sky and BT don't have experience of showing multiple games at the same time and with the lifting of the 3pm blackout you've got plenty of tv slots where you wouldn't have to play more than 2-3 games at the same time anyway. For example, if we ended up playing Saturday/Sunday - Wednesday/Thursday - Saturday/Sunday, you schedule 5 games per day across 3 different kick-off times meaning you're never showing more than 2 games at once.
 
BaZ87 said:
Unless Amazon come up with a big chunk of money for both the PL and Sky/BT then I can't see them showing any more games. Sky & BT have paid for live coverage of games and will not want their viewing figures watered down by Amazon or any other broadcaster showing games at the same or similar times. It's not like Sky and BT don't have experience of showing multiple games at the same time and with the lifting of the 3pm blackout you've got plenty of tv slots where you wouldn't have to play more than 2-3 games at the same time anyway. For example, if we ended up playing Saturday/Sunday - Wednesday/Thursday - Saturday/Sunday, you schedule 5 games per day across 3 different kick-off times meaning you're never showing more than 2 games at once.
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I just pray they don't use their EPL match choice system. PQ is horrific on that and no replays.

being as it will be the summer, maybe we could have evening games on a weekend. Maybe a schedule of:

Saturday

12:30 1 game
15:00 2 games
17:30 1 game
20:00 1 game

Sunday

14:00 2 games
16:30 2 games
19:00 1 game
 
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Evening games shouldn't be an issue, we have them every midweek anyway.

Liverpool have now announced that they're furloughing 'some non playing staff' but that they will top their pay up to 100% of what they earn. This should apply across the board, not just to PL clubs, but any business generating well in excess of £100m in cash profits each year should not be eligible for grants to save them sub £5m in salaries.

edit: a bit more detail on the above. Supposedly Liverpool are only placing around 200 of approx 700 non playing staff on furlough. Even if these 200 were eligible for the full £2.5k per month from the government (in reality they'll be averaging much less) then that's a saving of £500k per month for Liverpool. Mind boggling decision the club have made.
 
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BaZ87 said:
If as I've seen reported and it's only around 200 staff then the absolute maximum saving is £500k per month. It's completely unnecessary.
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Holy poop we agree on something.

So now I'm footing the bill for Liverpool staff as well. ;)
 
Journey said:
Holy poop we agree on something.

So now I'm footing the bill for Liverpool staff as well. ;)
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My position has been the same throughout this and this is why I've said that the criticism of players is misplaced. PL players taking a pay cut will not benefit the public or the country, in fact it will hurt the country because there will be less tax paid. PL players taking pay cuts will benefit football clubs and club owners personal wealth.
 
Almost all clubs will be. Burnley released a statement where they went into detail of the financial hit they expect to take in the event that the season is completed but behind closed doors and if it wasn't completed. They predict that completing the season behind closed doors would cost them £5m in lost gate money and failing to complete the season would cost an additional £45m in lost broadcast and other revenue. They also went on to say that other sides (sides near the top of the table) would be looking at lost revenue of up to £100m.
 
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