Premier League Club Owners, Not Players, Deserve Criticism For Coronavirus Response

Matt Hancock didn’t originally set out to use his daily press conference to the nation to single out Premier League soccer players, but when the asked was asked he didn’t miss his opportunity. “I think that everybody needs to play their part in this national effort and that means Premier League footballers too,” the UK government health secretary said when asked for his view on whether soccer was doing enough to combat the coronavirus crisis.

“Given the sacrifices that many people are making including some of my colleagues in the NHS who have made the ultimate sacrifice of going into work and have caught the disease and have sadly died, I think the first thing that Premier League footballers can do is make a contribution, take a pay cut and play their part.”

The response from the British soccer community was one of indignation. “The Premier league
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players are more than likely working on a proposal to help clubs, communities and the NHS,” tweeted former Manchester United player turned TV pundit Gary Neville. “It takes longer than two weeks to put together. Matt Hancock calling them out when he can’t get tests in place for NHS staff is a f****** cheek!”

Neville’s comments proved extremely prescient. Within just 24 hours it was revealed that Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson had contacted his fellow Premier League captains to organise a coronavirus fund that will raise millions of pounds for the NHS. Man Utd players had also agreed to donate 30% of their salary to hospitals around Manchester.

Players had been in discussions over how to best utilise their wealth long before Hancock’s comments, but had been wary of taking a 30% cut in pay due to the amount of tax that would be subsequently lost. This way players will continue to pay their tax at the higher income rate, contributing to state coffers at a time of great, while also donating more on top of that.

And yet while Premier League players were unfairly singled out for their perceived lack of contribution, the lack of contribution from the division’s billionaire owners has gone largely undetected. They are the ones who should have been identified by Hancock for not playing their part.

Last week saw Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur, along with Bournemouth, Brighton, Newcastle United and Norwich, place non-playing employees on the UK government’s furlough scheme, a support programme that sees the taxpayer pick up 80% of staff payroll. Designed to help businesses in these unprecedented times, it’s difficult to see why either club needed to do this. 

Spurs, for instance, recorded pre-tax profits of £68 million this year while paying chairman Daniel Levy a salary of £7 million which included a £3 million for the successful completion of the club’s new stadium. Liverpool announced as recently as February 27 pre-tax profits of £42 million and increased turnover to £533 million for 2018/19. There are soccer clubs who will require government support to survive. Liverpool and Tottenham are not among them.

There is a societal and cultural dynamic to be considered here. Premier League footballers are, by and large, of a working class background, yet time and time again they are blamed for their lack of service to the community while those with even greater influence and resources are given a free pass. 

Wayne Rooney also pointed out in a newspaper column that soccer players are frequently held to a higher standard than “big stars from other sports, who are able to avoid tax by living in places like Monaco,” underlining the cultural urge to direct unwarranted criticism towards a largely working class section of the sporting community. “At the moment it’s almost a free-for-all: it’s like the government, Premier League and sections of the media have set the players up to fall,” Rooney continued. 

Meanwhile, Tottenham owner Joe Lewis, with his net worth of £4.3 billion, and Liverpool owners Fenway Sports Group, valued at over £5 billion, will now collect government welfare to pay their non-playing staff. It’s a reflection of what the sport has become in the modern age and how if anyone is to blame for a lack of compassion, for not playing their part in these times of crisis, it’s certainly not the players on the pitch.