Premier League players are in full-scale revolt over proposals to bring in drastic pay cuts claims a report in the Daily Mirror.
They have set up a captain’s WhatsApp group and all 20 including Mark Noble are being urged to stand strong together, reject the plans and not break rank after one club skipper branded them “disgusting.”
The Mirror claims the players are absolutely committed and willing to make big financial sacrifices – but want their money to go to charities and not straight back to wealthy club owners. And a huge bone of contention is how it is being done because different clubs are going direct to players, asking them to renegotiate contracts – and trying to bully them into signing up.
Mirror Sport has been told one club with wealthy owners has asked every player to cut their salary by ten per cent over the entire length of their contract while another suggested players reduce their wages by 50 per cent during the crisis.
The Premier League are adamant now that the limit for cuts and deferrals is 30 per cent over a maximum of 12 months to be reviewed on a monthly basis which was agreed by the 20 clubs on Friday. It is understood there is now a commitment from every chief executive and chairman to agree to the same cuts.
One club executive told Mirror Sport: “Not every club is owned by a billionaire and if they don’t accept some sort of compromise then clubs will go bust. It’s as simple as that.”
But there is genuine anger among the captains and frustration that they are being painted as the bad guys when the reality is they are fully committed to setting up their own charity foundation.
The charity route is correct the tax still gets paid and they lose money. They cant be put on this Furlough as they are still working. The clubs don’t want them to lose fitness as they are assets. So they get paid the contribute to the crisis and the clubs don’t get to rake in more cash from slashing players wages to create a new normal. If you don’t like it don’t watch it on SKY BT etc. Stop Union bashing.
The problem is paying out a million pounds a week with nothing coming in is not sustainable for any business. Can you imagine any other business haemorrhaging that sort of money and continuing to trade?