CLUBS NEED A HELPING HAND

WITH Coronavirus threatening lives and livelihoods, footballers aren’t getting much sympathy at the moment.

When people think of football – and I include the government in this – they tend to focus on the millions and billions of pounds splashing around the Premier League.

What they don’t realise is that probably 80 percent of professional players in this country are living week to week and month to month.

I know, because I’ve been there. When I managed Blackpool in the mid-nineties, the lads used to run to the bank on a Friday afternoon to see if their wages had gone in. Sometimes they had, sometimes they hadn’t.

It was the same at Preston North End. The wages would always be cobbled together one way or another, but finances were very tight.

A shock like this would have sent us under, and that’s exactly the scenario faced by every club from League One down.

A lucky few might have some cash in reserve, or perhaps an owner who can foot the bill. If not, your revenue streams will deplete very quickly. And if you’re a semi-professional football club, like many in the National League, it’s even harder.

Lads at those levels have a short career. They might earn £500 or £600 per week, and they’ve got to pay mortgages and provide for their families whilst trying to save for retirement. It’s very difficult.

Resources

That’s why there needs to be some form of bailout, and I think everybody needs to help. We’ve heard this week about the government measures to help wider society.

That simnply must include the lower divisions of football because it’s not just the players. It’s the club’s staff, the matchday employees, the charitable arms of the business.

I know the EFL has pledged a £50m relief package to help its clubs, made up of interest-free loans and early award payments. That’s very welcome.

Just this week, though, Dagenham & Redbridge director Steve Thompson said that the National League will also need around £20m to survive the crisis.

Will the government pay up? Perhaps. But I’d like to think the Premier League, with all its vast resources, can lend a hand.

As a football lover and a fan of the game, we need to be supporting every club at every level to survive. It’s not just about history and tradition of strong lower leagues. It’s about the value to youngsters throughout the country.

Kids everywhere dream of becoming professional footballers and NonLeague clubs are often the first step on that journey. For others, they are the destination itself.

Avenues

If you let those clubs die and they don’t re-emerge from this economic disaster then you are depriving someone of the chance to live their dream.

That’s what the Premier League needs to realise. Even at that level, the money at club level will diminish very quickly, purely due to the size of their players’ wages and income earned.

But the players themselves could certainly take the hit and survive unpaid for a few weeks. That’s exactly what you’ve seen in Germany, with players at Borussia Monchengladbach deferring their wages to help the club.

Unfortunately, I can’t believe for one minute that the agents of the players would allow that to happen.

Nevertheless, I think all avenues have to be explored and all parties must recognise that we’re in the grip of an unprecedented crisis and must rally to help each other as much as we possibly can.