“Cutting footballers’ salaries would harm the NHS”

[Milo]

I think Footballers are obvious targets. However there's  plenty more people out there earning huge amounts (and not just till they're in their mid thirties)
Is Mike Ashley taking a pay cut? Directors of Banks, Entertainers etc. The silence there is deafening.

Suppose you could argue TV entertainers etc are contributing to the effort by providing incentive to stay home?

[Ged]

where would we be without billionaire tax dodgers living in exile

The nature of "tax dodgers living in exile" is that they are, believe it or not, in exile. So essentially out of reach. HMRC not being able to go after them is an unfortunate consequence of them being in exile, not a policy choice.

and or course banks who produce nothing

I presume you bought your home without a mortgage, store all your savings in cash under the floorboards, never had an overdraft or bought anything on finance, don't have a pension, never insured anything, never had to change your money into a foreign currency, never made an electronic payment (so never bought anything online) and never depended on or benefitted from anyone doing any of the foregoing (which is basically everything and everyone, except you). Well done!

1 well who new that thanks for letting us know. But thats ok then glad to see you got your priorities right
2 they dont produce anything they provide a service which they charge for like a window cleaner. They take one persons money and lend to to somebody else and charge you for the pleasure

[toshes mate]

My memory is probably full of falsehoods but I seem to remember that as a young person we had a burgeoning sector of essential public services e.g. health, welfare, housing, education, law&order, military services, utilities and transportation, etc., alongside industries including entertainers on fairly modest incomes.  Taxes were spread across a whole raft of necessary providers. 

If entertainers want ever higher incomes then what will they do when their audiences don't show up because they're all dead?

[Statto]

they dont produce anything they provide a service which they charge for like a window cleaner. They take one persons money and lend to to somebody else and charge you for the pleasure

LOL, so it's a bad thing that "they don't produce anything"? So the construction, farming and manufacturing sectors get your approval but not the banks, window cleaners, doctors and nurses et al? Seems a bit of an odd distinction to me.

I'd also add that banks are still continuing to provide their products/services through this crisis. They're still needed, and still working. Unlike footballers, who are sitting on their arses this weekend.

[Neil D]

i shall probably upset some people again but do you think
the royals civil list should be cut 30% ??

On the contrary - I think a 100% cut in the sovereign grant would set a great example before Her Maj speaks to the nation this evening.  It must be a terrible dilemma deciding which of her 400 servants to send to Tesco to do the weekly shop.

[jarv]

well said Neil. When I read the royals should be cut by 30%.....outrage.  Should be 100% cut, the biggest welfare recipients in the land.!!

[Statto]

i shall probably upset some people again but do you think
the royals civil list should be cut 30% ??

On the contrary - I think a 100% cut in the sovereign grant would set a great example before Her Maj speaks to the nation this evening.  It must be a terrible dilemma deciding which of her 400 servants to send to Tesco to do the weekly shop.

At least the Queen will be on tele this afternoon. Whereas Man City v Liverpool is off.

[Cambridge Pete]

Unfortunately life is not and never has been fair. The current statement is from the PFA not the players. Who is in charge of the PFA, why Gordon Taylor one of if not the highest paid union official. The statement is a disgrace and makes all professionals look bad. In terms of what Covid 19 is costing this country the figures are in hundreds of billions, £200 mil is but a drop in the ocean. The proposed reduction may not be necessary for the top few clubs but may make the difference between survival and bankruptcy to other clubs. The loss of tax revenues by furloughing non playing staff will probably cost the revenue (us the taxpayer) well in excess of £200mill. How many at Spurs 550 I believe. I apologise for this rant but just wish everyone would work together as we are all in it together

[bill taylors apprentice]

In these extraordinary times there will be casualties in all business and while I expect even PL clubs to suffer financially I am yet to be convinced they will not get through it in better shape than many.

So when we talk about PL players taking a pay cut it should firstly be about ensuring everyone working in their club keeps getting paid.
I believe each club should manage their own situation so the highest earners contribute towards a redistribution within their club and keep everyone paid.
In addition, pay cuts within each club should also be appropriate to the needs of that club in helping it come through in a reasonable condition.

If PL players and clubs then want to donate facilities, goods and money etc to the fight against the virus as individuals or as a group that's for them to decide and obviously they will be judged by the moral stance.

The football authorities i.e. PL & FA should dig deep to donate to the EFL and lower base of the football pyramid to ensure they can continue as best as possible, not only an advance on future payments but an extra allowance to help them get through this.

In a nutshell I believe its a priority the PL & Championship clubs should be looking after themselves and its also time the money we have been lead to believe is held by the PFA is used to help their members at the lower levels.

[domprague]

I thought the idea of cutting players wages was to fund the salaries of non playing staff members.
Surely millionaire footballers wouldn't refuse that.

That's my thought, too. Plus the day the PFA says something sensible is never going to happen. They can't say that there are times it is indefensible to stick up for their members.
One thought - lots of football clubs are owned by billionaires. Couldn't they sub the non-playing staff rather than expect a government handout?

Exactly

Then the best way might be for those players, paid above say £20k per week, to volunteer to pay a contribution out of their net salary. That way their tax contribution remains unaffected (although I tend to agree with Statto that this was a rather weak argument from the PFA).

[domprague]

Interesting to see yesterday that Liverpool's profit last year (CL winners, of course) was £43m. The amount they paid to parasites known as agents? £42m.
That would have paid for a lot of their staff.

[john dempsey]

i shall probably upset some people again but do you think
the royals civil list should be cut 30% ??

On the contrary - I think a 100% cut in the sovereign grant would set a great example before Her Maj speaks to the nation this evening.  It must be a terrible dilemma deciding which of her 400 servants to send to Tesco to do the weekly shop.

At least the Queen will be on tele this afternoon. Whereas Man City v Liverpool is off.

will she be starting or coming off the bench and if she starts
will she last the full 90mins.

[I Ronic]

Is Mike Ashley taking a pay cut?

I'm certainly no fan of Mike Ashley but to take him as an example, his firm's share price has lost more than 60% of its value in recent weeks. So yes.

A big chunk of that is down to some really awful recent acquisitions but that's going off the topic.

[Logicalman]

"If he's calling out footballers, call out some other people. Billionaires, tax exiles, bankers. The country bailed out the banks."

@JonWalters19 tells us why footballers are an easy target for politicians, who'd rather single them out than urge tax exiles to "play their part". https://t.co/R1lJKEDOWk

So he believes that footballers and F1 drivers work under the same principle of a single place of work and generally only travelling within a single nation? Jon, you need to take notice of WHERE the races are televised from mate (if you have even ever watched a race outside of the UK). He really does not do the rest of the footballing community any favours when displaying such ignorance.

[Logicalman]

Is Mike Ashley taking a pay cut?

I'm certainly no fan of Mike Ashley but to take him as an example, his firm's share price has lost more than 60% of its value in recent weeks. So yes.

A big chunk of that is down to some really awful recent acquisitions but that's going off the topic.

I'm not sure why people are looking at Business owners to take cuts. Do they also therefore feel that all those owners of businesses that are going under should be bailed out?

[Logicalman]

Interesting to see yesterday that Liverpool's profit last year (CL winners, of course) was £43m. The amount they paid to parasites known as agents? £42m.
That would have paid for a lot of their staff.

Agreed. And on that point, why are some of the Prem teams taking advantage of the JRS scheme? If they would get the monies that they are 'saving' (and charging the taxpayer for) from their overpaid players, perhaps there would be less calls for players to take pay cuts generally.

Liverpool put out a statement that perhaps needs further inspection?
"Liverpool FC has placed some staff who are impacted by the Premier League suspension on furlough. The club has confirmed those staff will be paid 100 per cent of their salaries to ensure no member of staff is financially disadvantaged. "
Does this mean THEY are paying 100% of wages or just the 20% that the JRS scheme doesn't cover (for those less than 30K a year)?

I think not, they are parasites, just as Newcastle, Tottenham, Norwich and Bournemouth are similarly forcing the taxpayer to foot their bill, when their owners and players could cover this with very little effort. I do hope our very own chairman does not follow this path that those greedy and selfish clubs above them are adopting. They all need calling out on this.

[bill taylors apprentice]

When the dust has settled there will be an opportunity to examine how we do things differently in future and among this should be a windfall tax on the so called wealthy clubs.

[f321ffc]

In the grand scheme of things the amount of tax paid by footballers is a pittance compared to the amount of revenue being lost at the moment, talk about clutching at straws, as posted earlier top earning players taking a pay cut which filters down the football ladder could be the difference between a small clubs survival or going to the wall.

[Statto]

Now Rooney has come out and called all this pressure on footballers a "disgrace". Honestly you couldn't make it up. This is giving me a personal conflict because I love our players, but this whole affair is just giving the impression most footballers are absolute tw@ts.

Tony Khan should just get on FFCTV now with Tom Cairney publicly distance our club from the PFA, Rooney, Lineker and these other greedy bastards. Take the initiatuve and announce something positive, eg that any cost cutting at FFC will be borne by the players first.

[Twig]

Now Rooney has come out and called all this pressure on footballers a "disgrace". Honestly you couldn't make it up. This is giving me a personal conflict because I love our players, but this whole affair is just giving the impression most footballers are absolute tw@ts.

Tony Khan should just get on FFCTV now with Tom Cairney publicly distance our club from the PFA, Rooney, Lineker and these other greedy bastards. Take the initiatuve and announce something positive, eg that any cost cutting at FFC will be borne by the players first.

I absolutely agree that some of players' wage cuts should go towards ensuring that our much less well paid backroom staff are not not furloughed.  But do you think there would be merit in a proportion of these player wage cuts going into a fund to support lower league clubs and their players and staff?  I fear for the future of lower league football after this is all finally over and without a robust structure below the top two leagues the whole edifice is in jeopardy.