Daniel Levy has called on Premier League managers and players to help English football deal with the financial problems caused by the coronavirus crisis by accepting lower pay after revealing Tottenham have reduced the wages of their 728 non-football staff by 38%, in some cases by placing them on furlough.
The move came as accounts for the year to (June) showed that Levy earned £ 4m – up from £ 3m in – 25 – as chairman plus a deferred bonus of £ 3m for the new stadium being completed.
Levy said his club’s operations had “effectively ceased” during football’s enforced shutdown and urged coaches and players to do their bit to protect jobs. Although there is an acceptance from some within the game that coaches and players at top-flight clubs will have to accept wage deferrals, an agreement has not been reached.
Clubs are determined to act collectively rather than unilaterally but Gordon Taylor, the chief executive of the Professional Footballers’ Association, has said his union will block a blanket wage deferral for players.
Taylor suggested some owners could look to capitalise on the coronavirus pandemic by saving money on salaries, a view privately echoed by some agents, but clubs are worried about their income drying up.
Spurs are the second Premier League side to apply to the government coronavirus job protection scheme, which allows staff to claim 90% of their wages, to a maximum of £ 2, 660 per month. Newcastle placed non-first-team staff on furlough on Monday.
One executive has told the Guardian that laying off people in non-playing departments would barely scratch the surface when so much is spent on paying players. The clubs, who are set to discuss pay again when the league holds its next video conference on Friday, are concerned about running into cash flow problems while games are suspended and they have made that clear to the PFA.
“We have seen some of the biggest clubs in the world such as Barcelona , Bayern Munich and Juventus take steps to reduce their costs,” Levy said in a statement on Spurs’ website . “Yesterday, having already taken steps to reduce costs, we ourselves made the difficult decision – in order to protect jobs – to reduce the remuneration of all (non-playing directors and employees for April and May by % utilizing, where appropriate, the government furlough scheme. We shall continue to review this position.
“We hope the discussions between the Premier League, PFA and LMA will result in players and coaches doing their bit for the football ecosystem.”
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