BRIGHTON CHIEF BEGS PLAYERS TO HELP
BRIGHTON chief executive Paul Barber has begged the PFA to end the stand-off over player pay cuts and give clubs the help they need to survive the coronavirus crisis. Division-wide talks have reached an impasse, with the players’ union demanding financial breakdowns of all clubs before negotiating. Brighton say they have been transparent with players about their financial plight but they don’t feel they ‘need to be transparent with anyone else, including the PFA’. Barber added that while players were not taking cuts, non-playing staff at Brighton had offered to do so. ‘Our financial position is very serious,’ Barber said. ‘This is not a fire drill. I understand the PFA have been doing their jobs and represent the players and I respect that. But this is also a time when we need the PFA to help clubs get deals with their players because it’s clubs that employ players. At the moment it’s clubs that are in trouble and the further down the pyramid we go, the deeper
that trouble is and we really do need some help. ‘There comes a point at which everybody in this difficult situation does need to come together. ‘We need to think of the difficulty many clubs are in. ‘Some are lucky, some have very, very wealthy owners, some are generating profits, but many clubs, including ours, aren’t and therefore we need help and now is the time. ‘It’s not another month or two months away, it’s now.’ Seagulls defender Lewis Dunk and striker Glenn Murray have been leading the players’ talks with the club and Barber said their discussions had been positive and very constructive. He added: ‘We were already forecasting to lose quite a large amount of money during the 2019-20 season and the crisis, no matter how it unfolds, will no doubt result in even greater losses. ‘For the players, it’s not been about where the money would go. They can see the money would go to support the club at what is a difficult time.’ Barber revealed chairman Tony Bloom had turned down offers of pay reductions from non-playing staff. ‘I have been humbled by the amount of people who have come forward to offer a salary cut,’ added the CEO. ‘Nobody at the club has asked them to do it, it is because they have seen the situation we are facing and want to help. Typical Tony Bloom. It has been, “Thank you very much, we are trying to reorganise our finances the best we can to cover this”. ‘At this stage he hasn’t taken any pay reduction requests and that is typical of Tony. He is bearing that financial responsibility on his own shoulders. ‘We have been very open with our players about that.’ Although the club have no plans to furlough workers, they have turned to the Government to help pay the wages of around 70 per cent of staff at their independently-run charity. ‘Clubs are central to their communities and therefore the ripple effect of football clubs not being here in the future is more than just not playing football… we must avoid that. ‘We must avoid the loss of any football club if we can.’ Barber also revealed Brighton players have made donations to local health charities.