KopTalk.com Forums Football Liverpool FC Forum Should Players Take a Pay Cut?

Well should they? Certain staff have been taking pay cuts and some laid off. Some clubs are even using the governments job retention scheme, paid for by us tax payers (Spurs I think??).

With players wages averaging out at £70k a week, surely they have to look to give some of that up to help those at the club who are being laid off etc?

yes they should in this crisis and not only that but when we are over this the days of big transfer fees and huge contracts are over. why?

because football is an upfront speculative business and hence needs stability to generate return. The prospect of pandemics removes that stability. Hence the risk of investment increases dramatically

Changing times ahead we may see more home grown players

Nah, it’ll be business as usual after all this.

I’ve just read that there are 4 premier league clubs using the governments scheme while none of their players have taken a cut. How the hell does that work?? Knock the players wages down a bit and you’ll have money to pay those workers.

The PFA are currently protecting players, telling players at clubs not to accept any terms put forward.

It'll be interesting to see how this plays out because lower club staff are being furloughed or losing their jobs whilst players are continuing collecting full wages.

It's starting to be a bit Marie Antoinette "let them eat cake" - upon learning the peasants had no bread, on the lead up to The French Revolution.

The players should be very careful, biting the hands that feed them!

I dont think you understood my post

I think I did. But if you’d written and punctuated it better it may have been easier to understand.

PREMIER LEAGUE TO MAKE NHS DONATION

A meeting of Premier League clubs has decided that a £20m donation will be made to "the NHS, communities, families and vulnerable groups during the COVID-19 pandemic" with a further £125m being given to the EFL and National League.

It has also been confirmed that talks are ongoing with players about a 30 per cent cut in wages.

A statement after the meeting said it was unlikely the Premier League will resume in May and that it will only restart when it is safe to do so, in line with government advice.

https://www.skysports.com/more-sports/li...cross-the-world

PLAYERS TO MAKE NHS DONATION?

Several senior players at Premier League clubs are currently involved in discussions to organise a coronavirus crisis fund to support the NHS.

Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson and James Milner are heavily involved with organising the gesture which could run into millions of pounds of charitable donations from the country’s top footballers.

A lot of conversations between captains and senior players have taken place and are ongoing. Once the principles have been agreed upon they will be able to go public and that could come as early as this afternoon.

Despite the curt reply I still don't feel my post has had an adequate response

I agree with the principles of what you say Stanley but I don't see it happening although I truly hope you are right. The amount that these players pay in tax is phenomenal. In many cases what they pay weekly in tax will be much more than many people take home in a year. That has always been bonkers.

I have just finished watching the second series of Sunderland Til I Die and the money that is needed to run a club of that size is incredible compared to what it is capable of bringing in at League One level. The upfront speculative business you cite is absolutely spot on. There were some clear examples of cost cutting they went through but you will see if you watch it closely around the transfer window the way that impulse takes over and can clearly wipe out some of those savings. Speculative business indeed.

Very few clubs are run well despite the millions they generate. I really hope as a result of this our clubs start looking at the money being drained out of the game especially by agents. The money paid to these leeches comes out of all our pockets and straight into their fat bank accounts.

Put a cap on salaries, agents fees and wages. Level the playing field and give the game back to the fans with cheaper tickets and free to watch games on TV.

Within 2 weeks of the first games being postponed we had clubs reporting that they could not survive long without the revenue from the remaining games this season. That is how fragile they all are.

To ask the government to pay staff 80% of wages when you are paying out millions each week to your first team players is a fukking disgrace. Worthy of bringing the game into disrepute and an immediate points deduction in my view as it is a truly despicable act. This looks like some clubs are either not living within their means of are just looking to feather their own nests. The government should not pay any of their staff on their behalf until ALL their players and officials are forced to cough up.

Perhaps the PL and EFL could withhold end of season prize money and parachute payments until such time that clubs fall into line and pay up.

Football in this country is a massive industry. The money the government gets from it in taxes could run a small country.

It looks certain we are heading towards a huge recession where people would lose their jobs which will make it more difficult to afford the superficial which football is. So clubs will struggle and will find it very difficult to pay huge wages

I suspect allot of PL players have already made donations but have not gone to the press/social media on it. They should also be doing their bit to help employee's at their won club, if I was on £100K a week and heard the cleaners & cooks have been laid off, I'd feel bad and find it hard to take my £100K with no guilt.

The problem is some clubs are exploiting it, like Spurs, which gives all the clubs a bad name, I'm sure allot of club are working with/help their local communities, like LFC do, I've heard a few local reports that Man City & Man Utd have done allot in my local community.

The PFA are also not doing the players any favours with their statements to say hang on and see what clubs do.

I can understand the PFA in a way. Don't forget they represent players at all levels and they are their union. But they should have been onto this sooner to get help to all their members. They represent the players on £250k a week and those on £250 a week. Like any union they will look to get the best for all members not just specific ones. Their job is made more difficult by having clubs all with different rules and agents of players with different agendas.

The ones they need to protect are the lower paid players in lower leagues but it is no longer fit for purpose in the modern game.

They are acting as a Union, and as all Unions they want to have a role, probably want negotiations with them. They would be mad if they thought pay cuts are not warranted

Yep!

In light of Liverpool now furloughing some non playing staff I wasn't sure which thread to drop this in.

But the PFA are now saying that if players were to take a 30% pay cut it would have a detrimental effect on the NHS. This is because the government would lose out on £200m in tax revenue. It needs sorting out. The club paying full wages to players whilst furloughing non playing staff in this scenario does not seem so bad but whatever way you slice this up the club still looks bad.

It's all about robbing Peter to pay Paul. This should and could have been sorted out without leaving a bad taste in the mouth. The red tape of government maybe to blame? The PFA probably looking for their own scapegoat? The players made to feel bad by a cabinet minister and everyone pointing fingers at each other.

Why should they be pressured or forced into a pay cut? They're top level athletes at the peak of short careers. Many will never struggle financially and ethically you could argue they have a duty to contribute, but they should be lauded if they do, not derided if they don't.

They pay millions in taxes for the government to waste and it's their right to keep the rest if they choose.

We've made record profits, struck a huge deal with Nike, our players are on 100k+, driving around in Mercedes and living in luxury houses, yet we have to rely on the government to pay our staff? This is embarrassing, I am really disappointed in our club. Whatever happened to you'll never walk alone.

If they are to be lauded, they should equally be derided if they dont, complete logic

Can you imagine the staff returning back to work, knowing that these players refused to take a pay cut from their 100k+ salary?

And Richard Branson can go fc..uk himself!

Lives on his own Private Island, doesn't pay a penny in taxes living offshore and reputed to be worth 4 Billion. Let's not forget he sued the NHS for £2m in public money in 2018 after losing out on an £82m contract to provide children’s healthcare services in Surrey.

He is now literally milking coronavirus for all it’s worth. Branson’s airline Virgin Atlantic has gone cap-in-hand to the UK government. The company is asking for £7.5bn in credit facilities for the airline industry. This is to shore-up its and other companies finances, as the fall-out from COVID-19 starts to bite.
He's also likely to ask for a bail out for his Virgin trains which has made £306m in dividends from the public purse since it formed over 22 years ago.

Socialism for the rich needs to be nipped in the bud in crisis like this. Privatising profits and socialising losses is despicable and has gone on for far too long. Treating company earnings as the rightful property of shareholders, while losses are treated as a responsibility that society must shoulder is reprehensible!

That would mean nationalising almost all companies given the depth of this crisis...communism/Corbynism then? Not saying it's right or wrong but this is probably the biggest question below the tip of the economic iceberg

These are unprecedented times Vish.

Big Companies cannot expect the tax payer to bail them out without them having to pay it back. The idea that Big Companies can still operate when this is allover without any financial burden is morally wrong, everybody else will be affected financially. There is probably the potential after all this is over, that those Big Businesses will have an even better landscape for them with less competition.

I wouldn't put it as nationalising, it will be interest free loans that Government have some sort of leverage to make sure they are paid back, hence the shares part. Besides some Big Businesses probably need to be nationalised because of the monopolised price gouging.

Doesn't make any sense at all. They're being told they should, or have a duty to. They don't and staff are still getting paid.

Why doesn't it make any sense, are they not part of the society, I think a lot of people would have wished they volunteered, and we all know how indecent their salaries are. If they play it selfish (they have the right to do so) I see no harm that the society put some pressure.

For me this is just the popularist vote, footballers and clubs do allot for their local communities, allot is not heard about, they should not be shamed into funding the likes of the NHS, out taxes should do that, as administered by the government of the day.

The government are using this as a distraction, they should be answering why the likes Branson and Dyson are getting bail outs when they have made huge profits in the past and dodged taxes, same go's for allot of the business/bankers etc that are in bed with the government, they are not being asked to dig deep into their billions offshore to support their own businesses. Someone from the press should ask the ministers at the press conferences what they are doing to go after their fat cat mates, it's not the footballers that are the biggest issue, but it keeps the press/people distracted with stupid headlines and debates, job done.

Next year we'll get all the CEO's stood on their mansion/castle doorsteps giving us all a round of applause at 8pm rather than a pay rise !!!!