Brighton & Hove Albion head coach Graham Potter is among the staff to have taken a pay cut during football’s suspension due to the Coronavirus pandemic, according to BBC Sport. The club’s chief executive and technical director have also taken cuts.
Graham Potter Takes Pay Cut at Brighton & Hove Albion
Clubs Under Fire
Other clubs in the Premier League have come under fire this week for making use of the government’s furloughing scheme. Tottenham Hotspur, Newcastle United, Bournemouth and Norwich City have opted to utilise the job retention scheme, something that politicians have criticised.
For Tottenham in particular, it means that stars such as Harry Kane continue to receive full wages, while non-playing staff suffer by having 20% of their wages taken away.
MP Julian Knight, who is the chair of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport committee, has called for Chancellor Rishi Sunak to impose a windfall tax on clubs that refuse to cut players’ salaries but do furlough other staff.
Not all clubs are going about it in the same way, though. Players at Leeds United, who are currently top of the Championship, have volunteered to take a wage deferral and Birmingham City players who earn more than £6,000 a week have been asked to take a 50% cut.
What Was Said?
Brighton CEO Paul Barber said: “It is entirely appropriate that we play a very small part in reducing the financial burden.
“We have seen our income literally disappear overnight.”
Gary Linekar, who used to play for Tottenham, criticised the club’s handling of the situation and added: “We are two to three weeks behind Italy and Spain in the scheme of things and players there in recent days have taken cuts.
“I strongly suspect the same thing will happen here, footballers do an amazing amount of great work in the community and I’m sure they’ll want to stand up at this moment.”
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