‘Furious’ players ‘irritated’ with Liverpool, blame owners

Premier League players are ‘furious’ that they are the focus of calls for football to give back, and not club owners such as Fenway Sports Group at Liverpool.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock has led the way in suggesting that players should help support the NHS in a time of national crisis, reiterating that same point at the weekend.

“Why don’t our footballers club together and support our hospices and support the national effort that we’re all in?” he asked, having presumably both donated a portion of the money he earns and asked his well-paid friends to do the same.

The initial reaction to those comments was dismissive, with one anonymous footballer particularly riled.

And the belief is that the 20 Premier League captains are ‘furious’ with what they believe is an unfair amount of focus on whether they are playing their part, as ‘there is still a feeling among the captains that billionaire owners should be the first to put their hands in their pockets’.

Miguel Delaney of the Independent adds that the players in question think they ‘should not be made to feel directly responsible for decisions that club executives make’, with Liverpool furloughing some non-playing staff leaving them ‘especially irritated’.

The players ‘have from the start indicated their willingness’ to help in any way they can, but ‘are insistent on playing hardball’ with regards to where the money goes. As last weekend’s PFA statement said, they fear that taking a pay cut will benefit only club owners and not the NHS or other charities as intended.

They ‘fear’ that some club will ‘use all this as a cost-saving exercise’ and the money could ‘just be used for transfer funds’. Clubs are stating that wage deferrals are ‘crucial’ to their futures, but players ‘want their money to directly go to the NHS, and related funds’.

Delaney adds that one agent has described the impasse as ‘ultimately a huge lack of trust’.

 

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