Gary Lineker blasts Matt Hancock demand for footballers to rush into coronavirus pay cuts

Gary Lineker has warned against a ‘judgemental pile-on’ against footballers who have not taken a pay cut during coronavirus crisis after Matt Hancock urged them to use their wealth to support club staff who are being furloughed.

The former England striker and Match of the Day host, who will donate two months of his £1.75million BBC salary to the British Red Cross, believes that Premier League stars should not be vilified yet saying: ‘I think a lot of footballers will do something’.

But he did blast his former club Spurs, whose owner Joe Lewis is worth £4.5billion and pays most players between £70,000 and £200,000-a-week, after they furloughed non-playing staff. Premier League rivals Newcastle, Norwich and Brighton have taken the same step this week.

Their shop workers, security staff, cleaners and catering staff will now be paid 80 per cent of their salary up to £2,500-a-month by the taxpayer when club stars remain on multi-million pound salaries.

Mr Lineker said: ‘The way Tottenham have handled it – I don’t think has been very good But that is a separate issue to what the players do. My inkling is that footballers will take pay cuts, they will help out in communities, they will make donations in whatever way they can, and I think we need to be a little bit patient with them.’

He spoke out after Gary Neville accused Matt Hancock of having a ‘f***ing cheek’ after the Health Secretary said Premier League footballers should give up some of their pay packets, when the Government can’t organise testing for NHS staff.

Tottenham’s Labour MP David Lammy sided with the Tory minister and said: ‘It’s criminal that Premier League footballers haven’t moved more quickly to take pay cuts and deferrals. And completely wrong that taxpayers are now being asked to subsidise cleaners, caterers and security guards at these clubs instead’.

But PFA chief executive Gordon Taylor defied the government and the Premier League last night by insisting that top-flight players would not take pay cuts to ease the financial pressure on clubs caused by the coronavirus crisis.

Gary Lineker (pictured on Sky last night) has warned against a ‘judgemental pile-on’ after Health minister Matt Hancock suggested Premier League footballers should take a pay cut. However, Gary Neville responded on Twitter, calling Hancock’s statement ‘a f****** cheek’

Now one Premier League club ‘suggests finishing the season in CHINA’

One Premier League club has reportedly put forward the extreme idea of finishing out the current campaign in China.

Premier League executives from all 20 clubs are preparing for a showdown video conference on Friday afternoon, but there are growing concerns that football authorities will be unable to formulate a plan to salvage the season.

And according to the Athletic, as the top-flight desperately scrambles to finish the season, one club has even suggested exploring the feasibility of completing it over 5,000 miles away.

This idea is reportedly based on examining the spread of coronavirus and looking at regions where it would be considered safe on health grounds to resume football and feasible in terms of infrastructure to stage the Premier League.

And China, who have taken positive steps on the path to recovery since the first global outbreak of coronavirus in Wuhan in late December last year, was raised as a potential destination.

The report claims that the outlandish idea was of the view that it would take the pressure and strain off the NHS and free up Premier League facilities so that they can be used by emergency services and local authorities.

Brighton’s chief executive Paul Barber has taken a pay cut along with manager Graham Potter for the next three months – but claimed today that because players are ‘assets on a balance sheet’ rather than employees, it is difficult to change their contracts and force them to cut their pay.

Although no Premier League footballer appears to have taken a pay cut, Wilfriend Zaha has offered NHS workers free accommodation to help ease the strain caused by the Coronavirus crisis on London’s hospital workers.

Manchester Uniter’s Marcus Rashford has teamed up with FareShare, a food distribution charity, after schools in the Manchester area were closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, raising £134,000 for meals.

Liverpool FC star and Scotland captain Andy Robertson has given his backing to a charity supporting elderly people during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The footballer said he wants people to know Age Scotland, which has experienced a tenfold increase in calls during the coronavirus outbreak, is there for them.

Matt Hancock said yesterday that top-flight footballers needed to ‘make a contribution and take a pay cut,’ with many clubs facing financial difficulties due to matches being suspended, saying the stars must: ‘Take a pay cut, play your part’.

He said that ‘given NHS staff making the ultimate sacrifice getting into work and have caught the diseases and sadly died, I think the first thing Premier League footballers can do is make a contribution’.

However, Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville said his statement was ‘a f***ing cheek, adding: ‘I wish I was a player for 10 more mins. The PL players are more than likely working on a proposal to help clubs, communities and the NHS. It takes longer than 2 weeks to put together.

YouGov survey finds 92% per cent think Premier League players should take pay cuts

A staggering 92 per cent of British people think Premier League players should take a pay cut during the coronavirus crisis, according to a new YouGov Sport survey.

Many Premier League stars earn well in excess of £100,000 a week, but have not yet been asked to take pay cuts or deferrals, while the non-playing staff members at clubs are being furloughed and taking home 20 per cent less themselves.

Norwich, Newcastle and Tottenham have all already placed staff on furlough in a bid to ease some of the pressure on their financial situation.

New YouGov Sport research reveals that the majority (92 per cent) of British people think top flight players should be prepared to take a pay cut. 2,154 British adults were surveyed on March 31.

Two-thirds (67 per cent) of British people who think players should reduce their pay believe that any cut should represent 50 per cent or more of footballers’ salaries.

In addition, nine per cent of those polled believe that Premier League players should be prepared to accept a 100 per cent reduction in salary for the duration of the COVID-19 outbreak.

It comes after Barcelona players agreed earlier this week to sacrifice 70 per cent of their wages while German giants Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund have also taken 20 per cent pay cuts.

In Italy, meanwhile, Juventus players have waived four months’ wages in a move that could see Cristiano Ronaldo give up over £9m of his money to help the cause.

The Premier League’s 20 clubs will hold another conference call with top-flight executives on Friday related to the impact of the coronavirus outbreak.

‘Matt Hancock calling them out when he can’t get tests in place for NHS staff is a f@@@@@g cheek!’

Piers Morgan also piled in last night and said: ‘Will Mr Hancock & his cabinet colleagues also be taking a pay cut – or is the intention here just to shame footballers who haven’t said they won’t?’

Brighton has furloughed its staff despite first team players earning £30,000-a-week.

The club’s chief executive Paul Barber told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme this morning: ‘Players have very different contracts to ordinary working people. The players are sort of assets on our balance sheet, so it’s a lot more complex to move to changes in the contract.

‘Talks are going on between the leagues and the unions at the moment and we’re hoping to hear something over the next day or two on that particular topic.’

Questioned over footballers living on smaller wages, Mr Barber added: ‘I think we can totally understand the public’s perception at the moment.

‘The whole country is suffering. Everybody is in a very difficult position. People are losing their jobs, worse still people are losing their lives, so we totally understand the perception.

‘I think individually players are good people, they do lots of good things. Many of our players have already made private donations to support various charities in our particular city.

‘I think most players are waiting on the union to come up with a formula or a strategy to help them work with their clubs through this crisis.’

Gary Lineker has said that players should be given a chance to support non-playing staff before a ‘judgemental pile-on’ begins.

Lineker told BBC Radio 4’s ‘World at One’: ‘The way Tottenham have handled it I don’t think has been very good – what they are doing to their staff I don’t agree with whatsoever.

‘But that is a separate issue to what the players do. It’s the club that has said that the players are going to carry on with their wages, but let’s see how the players react to it.’

Tottenham MP David Lammy says it’s ‘criminal’ that footballers aren’t already supporting non-playing staff

Piers Morgan is among those who believe footballers will play their part – and are being unfairly shamed before they have the chance to take a cut

In a strongly-worded statement that followed lengthy talks with the Premier League, EFL and League Managers Association that broke up without agreement, the PFA also criticised big clubs such as Tottenham and Newcastle, who have taken advantage of the government’s job retention scheme to furlough non-playing staff at the expense of the tax payer.

The Premier League and EFL had spent the afternoon attempting to persuade the PFA to endorse a universal financial settlement package for players involving deferrals and potentially cuts ahead of today’s crucial conference call of the 20 top-flight clubs, who had hoped to rubberstamp that agreement.

Sportsmail has learnt that the proposal put to the PFA involved players accepting a deferral of a fixed percentage of their salary for three months followed by a cut if football has not resumed by the middle of the summer.

The PFA have not ruled out advising players to accept deferrals, although the percentage has yet to be agreed with the figures mooted by both sides ranging from between 25 and 50 per cent, but made it clear they would not accept wage cuts. In an incendiary statement released less than an hour after health secretary Matt Hancock had called on players to ‘take a pay cut and play their part’ the PFA dismissed that suggestion out of hand.

‘Each club’s financial standing will vary,’ the statement read. ‘We are aware of the public sentiment that the players should pay non-playing staff’s salaries. However, our current position is that – as businesses – if clubs can afford to pay their players and staff, they should.’

Taylor is the highest-paid union official in the country with a salary of £2.2million and has developed a reputation as a hard-nosed negotiator, which he has had no qualms about displaying despite the country facing a national emergency and unprecedented public health crisis. In addition to refusing to bow to the increasing public pressure for pay cuts the PFA also accused clubs who have furloughed staff of damaging society simply to protect the wealth of their shareholders.

‘The players we have spoken recognise that the non-playing staff are a vital part of their club and they do not want to see club staff furloughed unfairly,’ the statement read. ‘Any use of the government’s support schemes without genuine financial need is detrimental to the wider society. In instances where clubs have the resources to pay all staff, the benefit of players paying non-playing staff salaries will only serve the business of the club’s shareholders.’

The PFA’s statement followed a day of mounting political pressure, which culminated in Hancock using part of the government’s daily press briefing to publicly call players to take a pay cut.

‘Given the sacrifices that many people are making, including some of my colleagues in the NHS, who have made the ultimate sacrifice getting into work and have caught the diseases and sadly died, I think the first thing Premier League footballers can do is make a contribution, take a pay cut and play their part,’ he said.

Earlier in the day the chair of the Department of Culture, Media and Sport select committee, Julian Knight, called on the government to impose a windfall tax on clubs who refused to cut wages.

‘We are facing an obscene situation where top players who aren’t working are continuing to see hundreds of thousands of pounds roll in each week while the staff who keep the clubs going are losing wages,’ ‘Knight said. ‘If the Premier League isn’t going to act to resolve this crisis then the government must step in by imposing a significant financial penalty on clubs to reimburse those hit hardest in the pocket. That’s why I have written to Chancellor Rishi Sunak today demanding that Premier League clubs do the right thing by Tuesday next week or face the consequences.’

Tottenham Hotspur Supporters Trust has called on Levy to make a bigger financial contribution to help the club cover non-playing staff’s wages.

It said in a statement: ‘We are aware that no football club can impose contract changes on its playing or coaching staff without agreement with the respective unions, the PFA and LMA (League Managers’ Association).

‘So the comment that THFC has chosen to cut non-playing staff wages while choosing not to cut playing staff wages is inaccurate.

‘But there is nothing to stop the club’s players making a voluntary contribution to ensure that the most vulnerable do not bear too great a burden.

‘And there is nothing to stop the club’s directors, including the chairman, making a further personal contribution on top of their 20 per cent wage cuts. Points we have made directly to the club board and will continue to do so.

‘We have made it clear that this is a course of action fans would overwhelmingly support.’

Players across Spain and Italy have agreed voluntary pay-cuts with the entire Barcelona squad, led by Lionel Messi, agreeing to 70% reductions while the coronavirus crisis continues.

I’ve been furloughed: What does it mean, why are companies doing this and what happens next?

Until a fortnight ago, it’s unlikely many British workers had ever encountered the term ‘furloughed’, but now it is a concept that has been thrust into the spotlight by the coronavirus crisis.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak has unveiled a series of measures to cover the wages of millions of people suddenly left without work and prevent businesses going bankrupt due to the coronavirus crisis – and furloughing staff lays at the heart of it.

Sunak said the Government will cover 80 per cent of salaries up to a ceiling of £2,500 a month – equivalent to the UK average wage of £30,000 a year.

The scheme, open to all firms with employees, will be up and running by the end of April and backdated to March 1.

But in order to access it, businesses will have to ‘furlough’ their employees who they can no longer afford to pay.

This term, until now more or less unknown in the UK, is suddenly popping up everywhere, with easyJet just one among the many companies announcing a two-month furlough for its cabin crew who can’t work after the company grounded all of its flights.

Here we explain what furlough means and what it entails for workers and businesses.

What does it mean to be ‘furloughed’?

Essentially, if you’re being furloughed by your employer, it means you’re being sent home, but will still receive 80 per cent of your salary by the Government, up to a maximum of £2,500 a month.

This Government job retention scheme is only for employed people, it does not apply if you are self-employed.

However, you first need to agree to be put on furlough by your employer, who can then apply for the money to the Government. You cannot apply for it yourself.

Your employer can choose to pay the remaining 20 per cent of your wages, although it is not obliged to do so.

If you earn more than £2,500 a month, your employer can choose to ‘top up’ your salary, but again it is not forced to do so.

You will still continue to pay income tax and national insurance contributions while on furlough.

Can I be furloughed if I’m on a zero-hour contract?

Yes. Also if you’re on a flexible contract or are employed by an agency.

If you are on a zero-hour contract, which means you don’t necessarily earn the same amount each month, your employer should give you the 80 per cent of your average monthly salary since you started working.

That also applies to workers who have been employed for less than a year.

If you’ve worked for your employer for a year or more, you should receive 80 per cent of your average monthly salary, or 80 per cent of what you earned in the same month during the previous year – whichever is highest.

If you started work only in February, your employer will pro-rata your earnings from that month. But if you’ve started working on 28 February or after, you are not eligible.

If you have been made redundant after February 28, or even if you left a job after that date, you could be reemployed under furlough if your employer is willing to do so. Otherwise you will have to claim unemployment.

Can I be forloughed if I’m sick?

If you’re fallen ill and in the meantime your employer has had to shut down, you should first get statutory sick pay first, but can be furloughed after this.

Those who are self-isolating because of coronavirus can also be placed on furlough.

People who are ‘shielding’ and are vulnerable to potential severe illness caused by the coronavirus, can also be placed on furlough.

At the moment, employees can be furloughed from a minimum of three weeks up to three months, although the Government may look to extend that if needed.

Which businesses can apply?

Any company with employees can apply, including charities, recruitment agencies and public authorities.

However, the Government does not expect many public sector organisations to apply, as ‘the majority of public sector employees are continuing to provide essential public services or contribute to the response to the coronavirus outbreak’.

Organisations who are receiving public funding specifically to provide services necessary to respond to the coronavirus outbreak are not expected to furlough staff.

Employers can furlough staff for a minimum of three weeks and are not allowed to rotate employees on furlough.

In order to access the scheme, businesses need to change the status of their employees to furlough workers and submit the information to HMRC.

HMRC are currently working to set up a system for reimbursing companies.

Football’s PR disaster: Politicians, ex-players and fans pile in on Premier League stars as £2m-a-year PFA chief executive Gordon Taylor urges them to hold firm and NOT agree wage cuts as coronavirus ravages the country

Politicians, former players and football fans have slammed Premier League clubs for failing to reduce the wages of their multi-millionaire players before using the government’s furlough scheme for their non-playing staff.

While the programme sellers and stewards are taking 20 per cent wage cuts and being bailed out by the government, top stars are still earning hundreds of thousands a week, and have been urged by the PFA to hold fire on accepting cuts to their pay.

All this has left a sour taste in the mouths of football fans and even ex-players, who have urged players to do the right thing and end the PR disaster they find themselves embroiled in.

No Premier League players have yet agreed to wage cuts amid the ongoing coronavirus crisis

One fan argues that football is ‘cutting its own throat right now’ with the stance they’ve taken

WHO’S SAYING WHAT?

Piers Morgan, MailOnline columnist: ‘It’s outrageous for any football club right now to cut salaries of club staff but not extravagantly paid players too’

Julian Knight, the chair of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport committee: ‘It sticks in the throat. This exposes the crazy economics in English football and the moral vacuum at its centre’

Harry Redknapp, former manager: ‘The players need to have a meeting among themselves and from their heart, say “I think it would be a good idea, let us take a wage cut, not deferred wages, we can afford it”‘

David Lammy, MP for Tottenham: ‘It’s criminal that Premier League footballers haven’t moved more quickly to take pay cuts and deferrals. And completely wrong that taxpayers are now being asked to subsidise cleaners, caterers and security guards at these clubs instead’

Simon Jordan, former club owner: ‘Come on! There is a moral obligation here – there has to be. Football has GOT to take a pay cut!’

Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London: ‘Highly paid football players are people who can carry the greatest burden and they should be the first one to, with respect, sacrifice their salary, rather than the person selling the programme or the person who does catering’

Leading figures from the world of politics have also weighed in on the debate, with Julian Knight, the chair of the Digital, Media and Sport committee, stating: ‘It sticks in the throat.

‘This exposes the crazy economics in English football and the moral vacuum at its centre.’

MP for Tottenham David Lammy took to Twitter on Thursday morning and said: ‘It’s criminal that Premier League footballers haven’t moved more quickly to take pay cuts and deferrals. And completely wrong that taxpayers are now being asked to subsidise cleaners, caterers and security guards at these clubs instead.’

Harry Redknapp, former Tottenham and Portsmouth manager, told the BBC: ‘I’m a bit disappointed they’ve used that scheme to keep workers on. These people are so important to every football club, the club shouldn’t be taking the government’s money to be paying them.

‘The players need to have a meeting among themselves and from their heart, say “I think it would be a good idea, let us take a wage cut, not deferred wages, we can afford to take a cut, whether its five, 10 per cent, but do it from the heart.”

‘When the government brought this scheme out I thought it was for businesses who couldn’t afford to keep workers on, I didn’t think it was for the use of top Premier League clubs.’

MailOnline columnist and football fan Piers Morgan summed up the thoughts of the nation when he told Sportsmail: ‘It is outrageous for any football club right now to cut salaries of club staff but not the extravagantly paid players too.’

Gordon Taylor has gone as far as to tell players to hold fire on accepting cuts to their wages

There is no football being played but footballers across the league are still earning big bucks

Jamie Fox thinks players can still turn the current PR disaster-class into something positive

Fans too have made their feelings abundantly clear, taking to Twitter to share their increasing anger on the situation football finds itself in.

One wrote: ‘Massive PR opportunity for the first high-profile Premier League footballer who comes out and asks their club for a pay cut, so the non-playing staff can continue to be paid. Even better if a captain got the entire team to agree to it.’

Elsewhere, meanwhile, some fans believe football may struggle to recover from the position it has put itself in.

‘At this rate when things go back to normal, the stadiums will still be empty as the public give up or boycott their support for players & refuse to keep lining billionaires pockets,’ one said.

WHAT ARE YOU SAYING?

Sportsmail has taken a selection of views from Twitter and the Sportsmail comments section to get the thoughts of the fans…

‘Massive PR opportunity for the first high-profile Premier League footballer who comes out and asks their club for a pay cut, so the non-playing staff can continue to be paid. Even better if a captain got the entire team to agree to it’

‘I’d like to think some players will go against the union chief and their agents and come out to donate a certain percentage of their wages every week to their own staff. Those guys are the ones that’ll be remembered as the good guys, just like Eddie Howe’

‘They are not playing…put the players on furlough too. They will then get the maximum of 2,500 per month. Football has lost its sense of community. They will pay for it in the long run.’

‘Greedy man, greedy players, greedy agents, greedy game. Most of the UK is struggling on reduced income, they need to understand what’s going on!!’

‘Is this actually any surprise, the greed within top flight football was always going to come to a stage where it would eat itself.’

‘Oil teams and now a corrupt gambler. This will finish football. Wake up time.’

‘Hopefully people wake up to the obscene gap between fans and players this crisis has highlighted the true importance of fans to a players earnings’

‘At this rate when things go back to normal, the stadiums will still be empty as the public give up or boycott their support for players & refuse to keep lining billionaires pockets’

‘Football as a whole is going to come out of this so poorly with its reputation in tatters because of the greed on display!’

‘Footballs cutting its own throat right now. If they carry on with this greedy stance attendances will plummet when football finally resumes.’

‘What a disgrace of a sport.. sour taste’

Taylor, who earns over £2million a year at the PFA, says he would block proposed wage cuts

Daniel Levy has seen his pay increase while placing Spurs’ 550 non-playing staff on furlough

Some fans think attendances could be on the decline after football showed its true colours

Another football fan noted: ‘Football is cutting its own throat right now. If they carry on with this greedy stance attendances will plummet when football finally resumes.’

As it stands, no Premier League players have cut their wages amid the ongoing coronavirus crisis, which has already seen 2,352 deaths in the United Kingdom.

Gordon Taylor, the £2million-a-year chief executive of the PFA, has told Sportsmail that the union want to know the precise financial position of a club before agreeing to any deferral, to prevent clubs from capitalising on the pandemic to save money.

The PFA are thought to be keen to protect players playing in the EFL’s lower leagues, making sure their earnings – much lower than those seen in the top flight – are safeguarded.

Players may end up accepting wage deferrals, but the union are keen to see clubs’ finances to ensure their members are not treated unfairly.

Former Crystal Palace chairman Simon Jordan, never one to hold back with his strong opinions, also spoke on the subject during his talkSPORT show earlier this week.

‘I think it is an awful look for football,’ he began, ‘and I think it’s awful Premier League footballers are being paid £250,000 to £500,000 a week and the government is having to support Premier League clubs.

MailOnline columnist Piers Morgan has joined calls for Premier League players to take cuts

NHS staff are struggling to cope while footballers continue to take home 100% of their wages

‘I’m sat here saying: Come on football, you can’t sit there and have every footballer in the Premier League on an average £70,000 a week and seriously say “let’s not cut the players’ wages first before we go to the government to fund our own staff”.

‘Come on! There is a moral obligation here – there has to be. Football has GOT to take a pay cut!’

Elsewhere Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, spoke to BBC Radio 5 Live and insisted that top-flight players need to ‘carry the burden’.

‘My view is always that those who are the least well off should get the most help,’ he said.

‘Highly paid football players are people who can carry the greatest burden and they should be the first one to, with respect, sacrifice their salary, rather than the person selling the programme or the person who does catering or the person who probably doesn’t get anywhere near the salary some of the Premier League footballers get.

‘It should be those with the broadest shoulders who go first because they can carry the greatest burden and have probably got savings, rather than those who were in catering or hospitality who have probably got no savings and live week by week and who probably won’t get the [government] benefits for five weeks.’

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