The Sunday Mail
Manchester United players will donate 30 percent of their wages to local hospitals and health services in the first major coronavirus gesture from a full Premier League squad.
The move was the idea of club captain Harry Maguire and was given full backing by the players.
In a separate move, after criticism of lack of action from players, the captains of all 20 Premier League clubs last week held a call to discuss making a collective contribution.
While no structure for such a combined donation has yet to be set up there was broad support for the idea of the 20 dressing rooms making a unified financial gesture.
United are continuing to pay all match-day staff during the crisis and have not sought to use the government’s furlough scheme to help struggling companies protect jobs.
The independent move by United players came as talks continued between the PFA players’ union and the Football League and Football Association, looking at possible wage cuts or deferrals during the current shutdown of the game.
Professional football in England has been suspended until April 30, at the earliest, due to the pandemic with some top-flight clubs putting non-playing staff on leave.
Health minister Matt Hancock said players should take a pay cut and “play their part” after he was asked about the morality of clubs using the government’s job protection funds for non-playing staff while still spending huge salaries on players who are sat at home on full pay.
Prominent opposition Labour MP David Lammy had earlier said: “It is criminal that Premier League footballers have not moved more quickly to take pay cuts and deferrals.”
The comments from politicians led a number of former players to rush to the defence of their profession.
Ex-Manchester City and Newcastle United midfielder Joey Barton, now manager of League One (third tier) Fleetwood Town, said Hancock was diverting attention on to football.
“NHS has been under-funded and mismanaged for decades? That will be the Premier League footballers fault. Wake up!
“This is about shifting the focus away from the government handling this pandemic horrendously,” he wrote on Twitter.
Ex-England striker Gary Lineker, now presenter of the highlights show Match of the Day, said the players deserved time.
Responding to arguments that players in Italy and Spain had made greater sacrifices, Lineker said: “They are a few weeks ahead of us in Spain and Italy as everybody knows.
“Give the players a chance to help the situation. I am positive they will do what is right. If it transpires that they do not, I will be their harshest critic. Let us see before we judge.” — Reuters.
