Our beautiful game has shown its true colours.. now MPs must go after the fat cats

THERE you go — I always knew football would pass the test when the time came to dig deep.

Now it’s the turn of fat cat businessmen and billionaire industrialists to show the same depth of generosity.

As a former professional, I’m immensely proud of the #PlayersTogether initiative in which all 20 Premier League captains organised a multi-million pound donation to the NHS in our darkest hour of medical emergency.

It showed an unprecedented unity among the players where rivalries were put to one side to address matters of life and death across the country.

While MPs were lecturing footballers about greed – and awarding themselves an extra £10,000 for working from home – the beautiful game showed its true colours.

Common sense always dictated footballers would do the right thing.

The overwhelming majority come from working-class roots and are decent people who appreciate the wealth which comes from reaching the top of their chosen profession.

I’m told Liverpool skipper Jordan Henderson has been at he forefront of the #PlayersTogether conversations.

It shows he is not just captain of the best team in the country. As well as lifting the European Cup, being within a heartbeat of winning the Premier League and an outstanding candidate to win

Footballer of the Year, it shows he is – first and foremost – a terrific human being.

A proper leader. The kind of bloke you would follow into the trenches.

When Henderson shared a tearful hug with his dad after last season’s Champions League final, a lot of us were crying with him because it was a definitive father-and-son moment.

Now Henderson and his fellow captains – with Watford’s Troy Deeney (right, bottom), Manchester United’s Harry Maguire (below) and West Ham’s Mark Noble (right, top) among them – have led their teammates on to the moral high ground.

They are doing their bit to help the NHS and help their communities fight this terrible virus.

And they are showing they will not be backed into a corner and will show leadership on their own terms.

As I said last week, Health Secretary Matt Hancock was wrong to single out footballers when his own department has come up woefully short in terms of testing and providing medical staff on the front line with protective equipment and ventilators.

In fairness, Mr Hancock was answering a direct question about footballers and their wealth. But I wonder if he will now be knocking on the door of wealthy businessmen, and tycoons with offshore bank accounts, to see if they will be following football’s lead?

It has not yet been decided how players will pay into the #PlayersTogether fund – weekly, monthly or occasional donations – but it is right that it is done anonymously.

That means fringe players or youngsters who have just broken into the first team on their first professional contract are not expected to stump up the same amounts as experienced internationals or headline acts on big money. Not to be confused with an outstanding act of charity, the saga regarding players taking pay cuts or deferring part of their wages has yet to be resolved. Southampton became the first Premier League club to defer wages – without furloughing staff – and others will surely follow suit. And I can understand other Premier League clubs who propose pay cuts for all staff are trying to safeguard their businesses.

But again, let’s make it clear that ‘greedy’ players are not the villains of the piece.

Players are only paid what clubs are prepared to pay them. And if clubs cannot afford to pay £200,000-a-week contracts, they should not be offering them in the first place.

I am certain players will do whatever is necessary to make sure their clubs don’t go bust.

But don’t blame them for negotiating the best deal they can get for themselves and their families.

It is wrong to accuse them being greedy. The bottom line is this: Clubs are not obliged to sign off contracts which will later bankrupt them.

In the meantime, I look forward to a ringside seat when the next grandstanding MP takes aim at footballers and lectures them about high wages.

After awarding themselves a 10 per cent pay rise – way above the rate of inflation – our elected Members of Parliament are paying themselves another £10,000 to cover the ‘expense’ of working at home.

All this when NHS and care workers can’t get enough personal protection equipment to keep themselves and the nation safe.

Instead of pointing the finger at football, perhaps Government ministers had better explain to nurses why some of them are wearing bin liners to tackle a deadly virus.