Premier League tells PFA players will have to share in financial pain - MW

Premier League and EFL have urged league footballers to accept that players will have to reduce wages, not just postpone wages, as the sport faces unprecedented challenges due to the crisis. Covid-19.

At a conference call held by the senior executives of the tournament and the Professional Footballers Association on Wednesday, Premier League chief executive Bill Bush, understood to have emphasized. The scale of financial clubs is facing during the suspension period.

Potential shortages include £ 750million of TV money, the effect covering the remainder of this season's games, tickets and other match earnings (because even if the season could end, the The match will almost certainly be played behind closed doors) and other revenues include sponsorships. The EFL Lei television contract is part of the £ 8 billion Premier League League plus three years but that makes 71 of their clubs more dependent on tomorrow's earnings.

Football Football rules require player contracts to be paid in full and the PFA stance, represented at Gordon Taylor's executive meeting, is to delay wages, not cut wages. salary, will be considered. The PFA argues that this is reasonable and if final deferred wages cannot be paid because of a crisis-induced deficit, this can be negotiated later.

However, the tournaments are said to have impressed Taylor that normal conditions cannot apply right now and players will have to share some of the game's financial losses. After the meeting, the participants made a statement that the discussions were built and were set to continue for the next 48 hours. The tournament and the PFA will have another call on Thursday; The Premier League has a meeting with the clubs on Friday.

Each club in all four divisions and the football pyramid down has its own employment relationship with non-playing players and staff, thus going to its own arrangement. Some Premier League clubs are understood to not plan to cut wages or even postpone because they have enough money to pay the players. Others are contemplating asking players to delay their pay while some are likely to try to agree to a cut.

On Wednesday, Bournemouth brought non-playing employees into government employment maintenance plans - such as Tottenham, Norwich and Newcastle - while announcing that club manager Eddie Howe, Neill executive director Blake, technical director Richard Hughes and assistant director Jason Tindall have implemented Important, voluntary wage reductions. Brentford in the championship is understood to be on the verge of agreeing to cut wages with players.

Under the furlough program, the government pays 80% of the employees' salaries, up to a maximum of £ 2,500 per month, in which someone has been completely fired from the job. Employers can cross that limit to get a full salary, which Norwich and Bournemouth say they will do. Some clubs in League One and League Two, and in the National League, will also use furlough diagrams for players; Forest Green and Portsmouth did so.

The agreement will also have to be reached on how players will get paid if the season is extended outside the football contract. End date of June 30. PFA's stance, as with the international umbrella football association minh Fifpro, as the player must be paid in full until June 30, then add to the grace period. However, even if the remaining matches take place, the broadcasters will not pay the tournament any extra money to show them.

Football authorities and broadcasters are emphasizing that they do not want to end in a dispute due to the horrific nature of the coronavirus crisis and their long-term commercial relationships. But Sky and BT Sport face a financial crisis of their own when millions of people suddenly lose their jobs or cut wages can no longer pay or justify signing up for television while not having live sports are played. Even when the season is completed, seemingly optimistic, broadcasters can ask for a discount due to their own loss of income.

Highly paid footballers have become a visible focus of public criticism during the crisis, particularly after Spurs announced that non-playing staff had taken 20% pay cuts, with some also placed on the furlough scheme. A YouGov poll released on Wednesday found that 92% of British people believe that Premier League players should accept a pay cut during the crisis, and 67% believe the cut should be at least a halving of their salary.

Julian Knight, the Conservative chair of the department for culture, media and sport committee, accused English football of "crazy economics" and operating in a "moral vacuum".

MW