Football and furlough: a tactical own goal?

Most readers will now be aware that as a result of the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the government has introduced the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme. The scheme is intended to avoid redundancies by alleviating the pressure on employers to continue paying wages in full during the crisis period. The scheme covers all employees provided that they were on their employers PAYE payroll on 28th February this year. How the scheme will operate in practice remains to be seen. There are many questions unanswered due to it being an entirely new concept designed to tackle an unprecedented problem.

Questions in relation to furlough will be answered elsewhere. However, it is interesting to take a look at the Premier League, which has now entered the fray, with many football clubs potentially at risk of scoring a tactical own goal as far as their own publicity is concerned.

Furlough in the Premier League

It has been reported that Tottenham Hotspur, Newcastle United, Norwich City and Bournemouth have all announced their intention to use the government furlough scheme to meet the pay demands of non-playing staff, without first asking their first team superstars for support.

This has led to some justified criticism, with one MP referring to this approach in the following words: “It sticks in the throat. This exposes the crazy economics in English football and the moral vacuum at its centre.”

A flaw in the scheme?

Of course, not all footballers are on huge salaries, but the average salary of a Premier League footballer is beyond the wildest dreams of most of us and the argument which is raging is clear. The scheme is not designed to effectively allow employers to continue to pay people hundreds of thousands of pounds, whilst at the same time placing staff on much lower salaries on furlough leave.

The scheme does not discriminate between employers, allowing all UK employers to qualify as long as they have a UK bank account. This means, for example, that very cash rich employers can take advantage of the scheme and place lower paid staff on furlough leave, whilst continuing to pay their most senior employees, which includes highly paid footballers.

Amongst some of the players, however, there is said to be a degree of frustration that they are now being criticised despite not having been asked to help. It is understood that, for example, Newcastle United players were not consulted before the decision was taken by its owner, Mike Ashley, to use the furlough scheme in relation to the club’s lower paid non-playing staff. Some players would surely have agreed to pay deferrals or reductions in their salaries to protect the jobs of other valued colleagues at their club.

At Winston Solicitors we will continue to bring you further updates. If you have any questions on this article, or indeed any other aspect of employment law, please contact Paul Grindley at PaulG@winstonsolicitors.co.uk or call 0113 320 5000