LONDON • Southampton yesterday became the first Premier League club to announce that first-team players will defer 10 per cent of their wages because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Manager Ralph Hasenhuttl, his staff and club directors will also defer their salaries for April, May and June, reported The Telegraph. Southampton said the measure would "help protect the future of the club, the staff that work within it and the community we serve".
The side, owned by Chinese businessman Gao Jisheng, also said that they would not be using the British government scheme to pay the salaries of other employees.
The decision comes amid a row about whether Premier League players - with an average annual salary of £3 million (S$5.3 million) - should be forced to give up some of their wages to help the nation.
The players' union, the Professional Footballers' Association (PFA), has yet to agree to a cut and argued after a meeting with the Premier League last week that a 30 per cent wage reduction would lower tax revenue to fund Britain's National Health Service (NHS).
With no common approach being taken by England's elite clubs, Southampton's announcement could now put pressure on other teams, some of whom have also been criticised for furloughing non-playing staff.
Independent of their clubs, Premier League footballers including Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson, England captain Harry Kane and Manchester United forward Marcus Rashford on Wednesday launched an initiative to generate funds for the NHS, called #PlayersTogether. It will involve players making voluntary contributions.
England's top-flight stars had come under fire over their lack of action, which contrasts sharply with significant pay cuts taken by players at other leading European clubs such as Barcelona and Bayern Munich. Real Madrid players on Wednesday agreed to cut their salaries by as much as a fifth.
Rashford told BT Sport: "We wanted to take our time with the decision. We want to help in the best way possible and getting money to the right places is a massive thing."
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10%
Salary Southampton are agreeing to defer, so non-playing staff can receive their wages.
British health secretary Matt Hancock, who caused a furore last Thursday when he called on players to "play their part", tweeted: "Warmly welcome this big-hearted decision from so many Premier League footballers to create #PlayersTogether to support NHS Charities. You are playing your part."
More than 60,000 people have tested positive for Covid-19 in Britain, and more than 7,000 have died from the disease, and the league's chief executive Richard Masters admitted that the crisis fallout could cost the top flight "at least £1 billion".
PFA chief executive Gordon Taylor told Sky Sports News: "It's not that they (the players) don't appreciate the seriousness of what we are in. It's that if their money is being affected, they want to know what's happening with it, and they would like to have the choice of where it goes to."
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS
