Disgusting and shows the greed in football at this level.

People need to have a think to be honest. This is a completely flawed argument.

If you stop pay or force Premier League footballers to take pay cuts it will cost the public purse. They pay 50% tax so as a consequence it contributes a lot to the economy if you think of it like that. Mesut Ozil is probably more use to the government than he is Arsenal he generates about £700,000 a month in tax.

Don't think so.
Most players, F1 drivers & engineering staff have overseas bank accounts. They pay same amount of tax as Joe public on about £60k a year. Same as most celebrities. UK tax law has so many loop holes. 40% of taxes are made up of general work force in this country 60% on fuel, tobacco and alcohol duties.
Premier League clubs are greedy, take million in t.v rights and advertising, hundred and thousands in season tickets, thousands in others sales a year. Still lay the of the staff.
Likes of the Airlines, Virgin, Easy Jet paid millions to share holders and still ask for bail out.

This is a bogus thread. The aid they are asking for is for off-pitch employees.
The tax argument is bogus too if you think about it for five minutes.
It reminds me of a Batman episode where the villains kidnapped an amazingly popular singing duo to blackmail the USA who would go bankrupt if they didn't have their taxes.

My disgust was against Levy he has paid off all non playing staff so they can claim of the goverment thats me and you who have to pick up the tab while he earns 7 million.
Surely morraly he should have used this option as a last resort not the first which i find is poor morals at the very least or just down right greed.

Any furlough payment is only a loan to the company and has to be paid back.

the owner of tottenham is worth a reported 4 billion pounds and they need a loan.

So in reality levy can pay himself 140 grand a week but needs a loan to pay the tea lady 200 quid a week.

Same argument as why should someone who owns 3 houses and rents 2 out get a mortgage holiday? Is the holiday passed on to the tenant? I doubt it.

I don't think this is correct. I think it's a non repayable grant and doesn't cost the company anything. The company at it's own discretion can top up the missing 20% to make up full pay.

You may be correct think it has all been so rushed and I may well have read something wrongly

Now Matt Hancock now talking Premier League players wages and saying they should take a pay cut.

At a time like this why is cabinet member in his position even getting involved in this?

Because these fuckers will use anything necessary to deflect blame, it worked for Brexit and there’s daft enough not nice people around to fall for this too

I think the amount that Premier league players get paid is a separate issue to what the government is showing a dislike of.

These clubs can apparently afford to pay their players huge wage bills, but normal employees? No they seemingly can't afford that, so the tax payer i.e. us have to foot this bill whilst at the same time the players are still getting full whack.

These clubs can surely afford to pay all employees salaries and this emergency scheme wasn't designed to protect the assets of uber rich football clubs.

Anyway it's the tide of popular opinion that will win the day here, and I'm not sure how much that is actually swayed by what politicians say.



Harry Redknapp “Tottenham are owned by Joe Lewis, one of the richest men in the world, and his club are cutting the wages of all their non-football staff by 20 per cent. I can’t believe it.
“Here is a club where the average player earns £80,000, £90,000, £100,000 a week."

Personally I don't like Premier league football, I haven't been for years.

[quote="PJPoolie"

If you stop pay or force Premier League footballers to take pay cuts it will cost the public purse. They pay 50% tax so as a consequence it contributes a lot to the economy if you think of it like that. Mesut Ozil is probably more use to the government than he is Arsenal he generates about £700,000 a month in tax.[/quote]
think thats the one and only arguement anyone can use for players wages. very much doubt than any of these players and agents used it as a lever to obtain bigger and better contracts for them though.

Harry Redknapp complaining about greed!?! Really!!?

Who next Sam Allardyce giving us his two penneth?

Redknapp is about the greediest, untrustworthy chancer that’s ever been involved in the game.

You after laugh.

I see your point.

All of the Premier league is awful, and we can all pick faults in the greed by everyone involved, however don't let this deflect you from the point in question here, which to me is -- is this government scheme for furloughing normal employees designed for wealthy Premier league clubs to hunker down and protect themselves when they are still paying ridiculous amounts out for players, who aren't even playing?

I've never been one to criticise the wages of top flight players. My view has always been that it doesn't effect me, it doesn't effect me because these wages don't come out of my taxes, and I don't go to Premier league games.

See what I'm saying? The way things are looking right now our taxes are going to these greedy clubs whilst at the same time £££££ bonanza for the players. It's wrong, and I expect it to change.

Don't let your dislike of all the other shitty greediness involved in the Premier league cloud your judgment here. The Premier league have built a ridiculous over fat edifice, the tax payer (us) shouldn't prop it up.

It shouldn’t even be a subject that is being talked about it’s a convenient distraction from the catastrophic failings of the government. It’s an easy target.

The clubs are paying billions into the pot every year The Premier League is good for the economy. This is not even a thing that should be in the news now.

In chasing millionaires they're letting the billionaires off the hook. There are plenty, probably in Hancock's circle of friends, that will have the money to fund multiple hospitals, ventilators, equipment and testing kits and not even make a dent. They're the ones who should be chased, not a footballer who is a 100k a week advertising board. Lots of them pay large chunks out to charities already or even have their own charities.

Simply put, they're being made scapegoats because they're in the public eye, whilst the proper rich people are sat at home laughing as their mate Matt deflects from both them and the government.

I don't think it's the footballers in the firing line here though. Not by me anyway.

Quite a lot of the players seem concerned.

It's the owners/decision makers at these clubs that the criticism is aimed at.

let's simplify this. If these top clubs can afford to pay the players then they can afford to pay "the normals". This is what the government wants.

Does anybody disagree with this?

Ah 'Arry, the man of the people, the man who said his dog had a bank account

Its a fucking subterfuge, Matt Hancock pointing the finger at footballers, the cheeky fucker, he's been very quite on his pals like Tim Martin, Branson and Ashley

Why bother to quote me? You haven't addressed one single point I've made - you've just gone on a hyperbolic rant.