“Cutting footballers’ salaries would harm the NHS”

[Forever Fulham]

In the NBA, Cleveland Cavaliers star player Kevin Love donated $100,000 to help arena support staff meet living expenses while the moratorium continues.  Others are now slowly stepping up as well.   I'd like to see footballers, especially the highest paid ones, follow suit.

[Statto]

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. 

Yes seems very reasonable to me

[Twig]

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. 

Yes seems very reasonable to me

And therein lies the nub of it for our beloved game.  I fear that many smaller clubs are likely to go under that the leagues and divisions that we have become so used to could start to fold like a pack of cards.  I don't see any strategic leadership from the top of football, or any other sports that I can think of.  Certainly there is a need to address the short term financial issues but the long term may look very different to what we have been used to and some planning wouldn't go amiss.

[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.

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?

I do. We bailed out the Banks when they screwed up. I think the Government should make every effort to refloat business that have or are likely to go under through no fault of their own. If the businesses fail then the employees are out of a job and many may face losing their homes. The knock on effects will be with us long after the virus.

[Black, White and Fred]

The only reason they should take any pay reductions is so the lower income staff don't have to be laid off. Rather than asking the government to foot the bill for thier wages. If I didnt have to do my job (A&E Nurse) I would not be too angry about my wages going elsewhere but maybe that's just me

[St Eve]

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.

Well said. Maybe Rooney and Rose should have offered to help before it was suggested. I suppose you would actually have to think to do that

[domprague]

Fair point but 60% of more money than the rest of us can imagine is still masses. I don't know how the super rich live but he's not worrying how to pay for the food bill right now.

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.

[Tempest]

Are elite footballers really paying 40% tax? I doubt it very much, not entirely sure them taking a pay cut really affects tax being paid, same if all high earners I guess. Good chance to reduce the tax rate to all to something like 15% and we would probably actually get more income this way. Think Singapore or someone does this. Apparently works

Sent from my SM-N976B using Tapatalk

[Statto]

Fair point but 60% of more money than the rest of us can imagine is still masses. I don't know how the super rich live but he's not worrying how to pay for the food bill right now.

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.

Just to clarify, I'm not trying to make a point about the levels or fairness of economic inequality between Ashley, bankers et al and the rest of us (although FWIW I'm generally a neoliberalist so I don't personally have an issue with that sort of thing). The point I was making just evolved from the Jon Walters comment up the thread, which was essentially, "why should we ask footballers to take a pay cut when other wealthy people haven't had to?" The answer is that most wealthy people *have* had to.

[Westlondonffc]

It would only be a temporary pay cut, suggestions it could even be deferred, but footballers have let the message be "na". If they agreed to it expect them all to rush to their agents once this is over asking for a new contract or a move to compensate their lost earnings, citing all the good causes they have done for society

[MISERYMAN]

I'm probably repeating what others have said but I think the reaction of some - Lineker etc - that footballers are easy targets just shows how out of touch they are.  The main point about highly paid people running businesses is surely that their large salaries are still a small proportion of turnover of their companies which may employ large numbers of staff, whereas Premier League, and probably Championship, clubs spend at least 80% of their running costs on players pay, probably more.  It is outrageous for clubs to try to take advantage of a Government scheme to protect workers when only a small proportion of what they spend on players would be needed to pay other staff.  Maybe the mistake was to try to agree a blanket reduction across all clubs rather than deal with this within each club.  I'm sure most players themselves would be happy to support staff at their own club and it probably wouldn't require that much of a reduction in what they get.

As things stand, will all the players get booed when football eventually starts again?  Interesting thought

[gang]

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

At least by 30%

[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?

I do. We bailed out the Banks when they screwed up. I think the Government should make every effort to refloat business that have or are likely to go under through no fault of their own. If the businesses fail then the employees are out of a job and many may face losing their homes. The knock on effects will be with us long after the virus.

I don't disagree with you, so the logic flows that if we are willing to guarantee such businesses the appropriate bail-out, then we should expect them to take cuts. The rub, unfortunately, is that our pov on this may well not gel with those people who believe in the Capitalist mantra that freedom from Politics is at the center of it all and therefore the Government (of any flavour) should remain outside of it all to avoid any influence in the future. In the real world we all know such things are linked together presently, but it's nice to think there is some separation.

[Logicalman]

I hope we all respect that not all footballers are the same. The story of Sadio Mane does go a long way to show other footballers what it means to give back. Perhaps Henderson et al, will look to his team mate for some inspiration in their 'negotiations', but being the cynic I am, not hopeful

https://www.planetfootball.com/quick-reads/six-times-sadio-mane-was-the-nicest-man-in-the-world/

[Montague]

"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

Banks and most of the businesses that make people billionaires are far more useful to society than footballers. Most of them will have worked much longer and harder than footballers for their money.

I don't know of any businessmen or bankers who have 'worked' at their profession since they were 8 or 9 years old, given up most of their 'normal' teenage life, had to have the full support of their parents and families to help them achieve any sort of success (with the impact to 'normal' family life) and in the meantime been threatened with the 'sack' every six or twelve weeks if they don't perform or meet standards of achievement / commitment.

Not saying what the PFA are doing at this time is correct but think we need to understand that the 90mins we see on a Saturday are just the very tip of the iceberg in a footballers life.

[Statto]

I hope we all respect that not all footballers are the same.

Good point. Can you imagine Cairney, Christie, McDonald, Mitrovic or Sessegnon crashing their 4x4 in the early hours of tomorrow morning? Having a hooker orgy round a mate's house? Having their ghost writer put out a newspaper article saying it's a "disgrace" that they have to take a 30% pay cut?

No.

[Statto]

I don't know of any businessmen or bankers who have 'worked' at their profession since they were 8 or 9 years old, given up most of their 'normal' teenage life, had to have the full support of their parents and families to help them achieve any sort of success (with the impact to 'normal' family life) and in the meantime been threatened with the 'sack' every six or twelve weeks if they don't perform or meet standards of achievement / commitment.

Not saying what the PFA are doing at this time is correct but think we need to understand that the 90mins we see on a Saturday are just the very tip of the iceberg in a footballers life.

Ok just taking those points in turn -

"I don't know of any businessmen or bankers who have 'worked' at their profession since they were 8 or 9 years old..." - I admit I've met the odd CEO who left school with no qualifications, so you could argue their "careers" didn't start until their 20s, but given they're generally 50 or 60 years old, they've still been at it a lot longer than the average footballer even if you treat the latter as having started his career aged 8. And certainly, most bankers I've met (which is a lot) had impeccable academics from their GCSEs (ie early teens) through to their MBA, many years before they hit the big money.

"threatened with the 'sack' every six or twelve weeks" - They're on 3/4/5 year contracts. So if they get the 'sack' it comes with a £10m-£15m payoff (PL average). In contrast, the average banker is probably on 6 months' notice.

"the 90mins we see on a Saturday are just the very tip of the iceberg in a footballers life" - agreed. They also need to spend about 20 hours a week kicking a ball around the training ground with their mates and a few hours modelling some clothes they're being given for free. In contrast, successful businessmen and bankers will spend large parts of their lives at a desk for 16 hours a day, 5 or 6 days a week.

[ffcne]

%u201CIf he%u2019s calling out footballers, call out some other people. Billionaires, tax exiles, bankers. The country bailed out the banks.%u201D

@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

Banks and most of the businesses that make people billionaires are far more useful to society than footballers. Most of them will have worked much longer and harder than footballers for their money.

I don't know of any businessmen or bankers who have 'worked' at their profession since they were 8 or 9 years old, given up most of their 'normal' teenage life, had to have the full support of their parents and families to help them achieve any sort of success (with the impact to 'normal' family life) and in the meantime been threatened with the 'sack' every six or twelve weeks if they don't perform or meet standards of achievement / commitment.

Not saying what the PFA are doing at this time is correct but think we need to understand that the 90mins we see on a Saturday are just the very tip of the iceberg in a footballers life.

The poor life of a footballer .
This Thursday's clap is for footballers.

[Woolly Mammoth]

Most of them have already had it.

[Statto]

Most of them have already had it.

:005: :Haynes The Maestro: