A message from Liverpool football club

Not according to the PFA , they have been very specific where the money would go.

 

Is there any difference between furloughing staff during this epidemic and, in non epidemic times, paying benefits to working people who are underpaid to such an extent that they can’t survive without them, when their employers are multi billionaires. Amazon, ASOS et al?
If the answer is no, surely awkward questions must be asked when it’s all over, and some good
might just come from this virus.

 

i'll be interested what the gov does to claw back these payments
most PL players if not all will be paying 45% tax, say they to up this to 50% but probably see an exodus of the best players losing these taxes,
but bet your bottom dollar we will face the hardest hit if upped the base rate to around 25%
N.I & VAT be going up too,
be a very tough few years ahead for us regular working class folk and can see many of our regular football clubs going under with lower gates and tv broadcasters will definitely take a hit on subs and try to renegotiate deals

 

It's paid back - probably with interest- so it's not free

 

I felt the same but after listening to Simon Jordan and the PFA fella on talksport the other day I see why it can’t be done.

If any club in the premier league was to furlough or lower a players wages they would automatically be eligible for a free transfer away from that club.

 

I see Rooney has weighed in, saying it's a disgrace and that a 30% pay cut could "financially ruin" some premier league players. It seems the players, clubs and FA are all fighting to see who can keep their snout in the trough for longest.

 

He's got a point. Lets say for the sake of the argument that a player is only earning £100k per week and this is cut to £70k per week. How is anyone expected to survive on a £70k per week. Let's stop worrying about people on average wages or minimum wage being furloughed and start showing a bit of sympathy for the poor footballers who are going to be experiencing real hardship.

 

At the same time though, there will be young players that aren’t on a fortune (comparatively) that will be hit hard by a blanket solution. It should in my opinion be 50% reduction on any salary over £70k a year or something like that

 

Exactly.

 

The PFA says that a 30% cut is pay will result in loss of £200m in tax to the government. What was not mentioned was the £244+m that the players themselves would lose. With the current level of spending the £200m is not going to make a vast difference. However, the message from the PFA to the rest of the country if they did accept a significant pay cut would be incalculable.

 

According to PFA a lot of players already do pay 50% tax

 

So you're saying all the companies will have to pay the treasury the furlough money back? That would put many small or even middle size companies out of business after going without business surely? What's the source you're using here?

 

Just seen a great idea from Georgie Bingham on talksport (well I saw it on Twitter)
Any premier league club that furloughs players and takes.the 80% off the government to have a transfer ban. I wonder how many would want it then. (Possibly Ashley lol)

 

This sums it up.
https://www.instagram.com/tv/B-mNZ6eHz3r/?igshid=1thfzhq5xbjtl

 

That is quite funny.

 

I'm on the side of the players. They pay a fortune in tax, not just PAYE and NI, but VAT, top band council tax, etc. They're also easy targets, probably because most of them grew up working class and from BAME backgrounds. See anybody calling for Ed Sheeran to cough up 30% of what he made in the past month? I'm also very aware of the fantastic community work most players are a part of, our lads are always spending their time with the less fortunate, and I would bet that the vast majority of players have already done something to help during all of this.

The villains here are the clubs. Most of them were probably planning to spend tens of millions on players this summer. Rather than a budget of £20m they could budget £15m and afford to pay the off-field staff. If clubs are going to take advantage then the Government should implement a 10-20% transfer tax on both the buying and selling club once football resumes. I think the owners will find their chequebooks pretty quickly should they moot that idea.

 

He's wrong. He thought it was a loan but it's not.

 

They are busy typing up a 27 word statement. The typewriter ribbon is knackered though & delivery via Amazon is taking some time in the current circumstances.

 

Not being funny mate but if you aren't 100% certain on this you need to make it clear that you aren't. There are plenty of small business owners on here (not me) who you could end up panicking.

 

The furlough money does not need paying back, but is taxable for the recipient.

The "grants" are loans though, provided by banks, with an 80% government guarantee. Problem is the banks will only lend if there is a strong case it can be repaid.