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If I was a player I wouldn't be taking a pay cut either, why would I? So that more money goes into the pockets of the billionaire club owners? Because that is where the money would go, not to NHS nurses or the low paid staff at the club. Are people really so naive that they think the likes of Mike Ashley wouldn't use the government scheme even if the players did take a pay cut? They are well within their rights to tell the owners to go fück themselves, take the money and give to a medical charity instead.

 

Careful, you’re not allowed to stick up for the players on here, the pitchforks will be out.

 

 

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If I was a player I wouldn't be taking a pay cut either, why would I? So that more money goes into the pockets of the billionaire club owners? Because that is where the money would go, not to NHS nurses or the low paid staff at the club. Are people really so naive that they think the likes of Mike Ashley wouldn't use the government scheme even if the players did take a pay cut? They are well within their rights to tell the owners to go fück themselves, take the money and give to a medical charity instead.

 

I don't think it would be that hard for the players to simply say, "take the staff wages out of our wages," on the proviso that the club don't then ask the taxpayer for money.

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Almost feels like this should be the last straw and unless clubs refund the taxpayer in full when this is over, all clubs who participate in this should be boycotted until they do.

 

Not talking a wish-washey boycott where a few thousand stay away, I mean getting average attendances at PL games below 5000.

 

 

Good luck with that....

 

You’ve got absolutely zero chance of this making a blind bit of difference to attendances. 3 weeks after the restart it’ll all be forgotten.

 

 

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If I was a player I wouldn't be taking a pay cut either, why would I? So that more money goes into the pockets of the billionaire club owners? Because that is where the money would go, not to NHS nurses or the low paid staff at the club. Are people really so naive that they think the likes of Mike Ashley wouldn't use the government scheme even if the players did take a pay cut? They are well within their rights to tell the owners to go fück themselves, take the money and give to a medical charity instead.

 

So in the argument as to who should pick up the tab you’d side with the multi-millionaires against the billionaires. I suppose they’re technically not as wealthy.

 

And because neither side is prepared to concede to the other, we’ll leave it to the tax payer. I suppose all the overtime the nurses are doing will help swell the tax receipts, so why not.

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Love the PFA telling us that if players take a pay cut the economy will suffer due to slack of tax

 

How about they tell their members to frame the full wage then donate a large percentage to a good causes fund which is then used to fund 1st responders

 

I hate agents but PFA are just as big a drain on the game, I know they are supposed to look after old pros & lower league players in hardship but don’t try to Vilify the general public

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I had a season ticket for over 20 years, but I've found myself attending St Mary's less and less over the last few years.

 

After reading that statement from the PFA, and hearing club after club through staff on furlough, I think I'm done with this so-called sport.

 

Absolutely. I won't give the premier league another £.

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Absolutely. I won't give the premier league another £.

 

With you there brother. We all knew football is morally bankrupt. The game I fell in love with as a 6 year old is not the game we now see. It’s over, This list of reasons not to go has been steadily growing over the years but now with the richest clubs in the world taking advantage of a government scheme to keep small business alive its time to call it a day until things change.

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Clubs like Newcastle, Spurs and Shîte bags LIVERPOOL FFS taking Gov. Handouts... Makes my blood boil. Really really hope SFC don't follow suit.

 

Greedy **** footballers reputations declining heavy each day.

 

Football as a whole has been properly exposed.

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Love the PFA telling us that if players take a pay cut the economy will suffer due to slack of tax

 

How about they tell their members to frame the full wage then donate a large percentage to a good causes fund which is then used to fund 1st responders

 

I hate agents but PFA are just as big a drain on the game, I know they are supposed to look after old pros & lower league players in hardship but don’t try to Vilify the general public

 

Gordon Taylor and his annual wage has been a key issue IMO all along - time for the press to finally force him to go with some help from the clubs and PL. I get the impression many of players are not happy with the PFA tactics and it’s all a smokescreen to protect him making a fortune. The PFA has been a blight on the game along with agents for many years.

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It would help the players reputation if , even now , they donated a regular sum to help the non playing staff . They would still be paying their tax (or whatever tax they haven't managed to avoid) . However the clubs may see that as a way of not paying their share so managers and others should also contribute.

The PFA have been under scrutiny for some time for not doing enough for players and for the massive and ever increasing pay of Gordon Taylor , perhaps this is the time for him to go but I suspect he will hold on to power for as long as possible.

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I think this is a really tough one, especially for Liverpool. Obviously they are one of the highest profile clubs in the world. Liverpool is also one of the most socialist-supporting regions in this country.

 

To furlough the average-man-in-the-street staff, whilst the very well paid footballers and the very wealthy owners, fail to contribute, will cause a greater ill-feeling there than I suspect the same action has in Norwich.

 

There are a few posters on these threads on this forum who are saying, enough is enough, I can't be done contributing to this morally bankrupt business anymore. I wonder if the average Liverpool fan thinks the same?

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This has got me thinking.

 

Our club will be going through the financial scenario planning and looking to make decisions. From the sentiment across England, furloughing your lower paid staff is poor form. One way of balancing the books is for the highest earners to take a pay cut, thus allowing the lower earners to maintain 100% income.

 

Not much any of us can do about those decision, but I wonder if the fan base can influence some of the decision making?

 

If the season gets scrapped, the club will have a large liability to refund the ticket holders for games that didn't take place. This will run into several million quid.

 

Would you support waiving your refund, to help the club pay 100% of wages?

 

Equally, would you support buying next year's season ticket today, without knowing if/when it will kick off?

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Rubbish. There’s not one person in the country that doesn’t think Liverpool will win the title. If the season is voided it’ll be remembered as the season a freak event robbed them of the title. Only sad sacks and Man Utd fans will deny that. Not that Liverpool will particularly care. I don’t get the hatred for them over this, they’ve acted pretty classy, Klopp in particular. You can bet your bottom dollar that when it comes to clubs putting their self interest above all else and acting without class Liverpool will be way behind the West Ham’s and Newcastle’s of the world by the time this is all over.

 

 

 

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LOL.. told you their class wouldn’t take long to shine through

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Clubs like Newcastle, Spurs and Shîte bags LIVERPOOL FFS taking Gov. Handouts... Makes my blood boil. Really really hope SFC don't follow suit.

 

Greedy **** footballers reputations declining heavy each day.

 

Football as a whole has been properly exposed.

It's my understanding, thank goodness, that Saints won't be furloughing staff or taking government grants. I think that, compared with other clubs, their behaviour is commendable.

 

But my blood is also boiling over the PFA stance. The £200m lost is taxes is totally spurious as that's a figure for a whole year assuming players don't subscribe to tax reduction schemes. As it probably wouldn't extend beyond say 4 months the real figure is probably less than £50m.

 

And that shortfall could be easily be covered with an agreement that half of the wage reduction had to be gifted to the NHS with the other half retained by clubs to pay non-playing staff, avoid government grants and support the community. Club still wins.

 

But no, the overriding principles are greed and self-interest. Desperately important to keep the millions flowing into players' (and agents') pockets. Anything to stop the bubble bursting. Power is everything and way too much power lies with the PFA and players.

 

It's hard to see how it can happen, but I am disgusted and really want to see a massive wave of public (including supporter) anger against the PFA.

 

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I believe he 'earnt' £7 million quid last year.

 

I'm really struggling with some of the views on here (and that's not including some of the politically charged rants). Some arguing footballers are great because they've visited a hospital, it's the rock stars who are the enemy. People saying clubs are right to be acting this way because the government provided a fund for this, to save the poor unfortunate low paid workers.

 

People with those views are missing a few simple points.

1) this is not directed at footballers in the sense that we think they are all evil. Many do indeed perform many community actions. However, their leadership via clubs and/or PFA have got he balance massively wrong in terms of performing their duty in protecting their members /prized employees, versus acting fairly in the wider (global) community

2) in terms of rock Stars etc., 2 wrongs don't make a right. If you're rich you should be doing your bit

3) the accountancy argument is utterly wrong and misses the point. If someone could point out the following to Andros Townsend it would be appreciated:

 

Normal times you have income and outgoings. Most outgoings are on staff, and almost uniquely in football, they are massively skewed in favour of a few elite performers. These people are arguably some of the most privileged people on the planet. I'd remember that fact.

The income is being impacted. It could be about to get a whole lot worse depending in to revenue, but at present its just essentially gate receipts and over priced burgers, not insignificant but not the main revenue stream either, at least at PL level.

 

Elsewhere, there are companies that have lost their entire revenue stream, and have no means to pay their staff, most of whom are on relatively low wages.

 

In order to prevent total social breakdown, the government I troduced a scheme to help pay these people. The bill will be picked up by the tax payer. Worth noting the tax payer is not a mysterious man with a funny name, but is you and I, earning our average salary of 20 -30k

 

Now here's where it gets to decision time for football clubs, and where they are basically acting like ****s. Like all companies, they have to rebalance their outgoings with income over this strange period which will last for an unknown time. They can either reduce their outgoings by getting their lower paid staff to be paid by the government, or ask their highest paid staff (some of the most privileged in society) to reduce their wages instead.

 

One action means that the taxpayer (you and I) helps pay for these staff at companies we have no interest in for years to come in higher taxes, the other sees highly privileged people help pay for people they work with and rely on every single day of their current working lives.

 

Of course, from an accounting point of view, it makes sense for a company to take the gre money option. And you can argue that in a progressive tax system, we are all paying, and the rich are paying more than the poor.

 

In the real world, however, the rich don't pay more tax, the clubs at the top end of the PL are so awash with money they dump millions at the feet of agents, call girls and god knows what else every year, and the players are enormously well-paid and privileged. And the staff being furloughed are people they work with every day at their own clubs!!!

 

I fail to see how anyone doesn't find this morally abhorrent. There are accountancy arguments, progressive taxation arguments, and discussions about where to draw the line in terms of first team v youth team players, how far down the football pyramid we're talking etc., but for (and I'm sure Harry Kane is a charitable Saint) the England captain at a champions league club on millions a year to be taking no pay cut while his fellow club staff (the club he's famously supported all his life) get laid off at the governments cost, to be paid for by me through my tax, when he's got nothing to do (not his fault) and people all around him in his city, country and world are being laid off in droves, losing businesses they've spent years building, losing loved ones and not being able to attend funerals, and risking lives helping people who are dying in underfunded hospitals because you and I can't really afford any more tax already is 4UCKING DISGUSTING.

 

It is not Harry Kane's fault. He hasn't made this decsision, and might be opposed to it for all we know. But that is the context. He's on millions, and expects me to pay for his masseuse at his boyhood club who he works with every day through my tax because he doesn't want a pay cut. While his boss picks up a £3 million bonus for delivering a late stadium and will no doubt get another bonus for safely navigating Spurs through coronavirus through his brilliant accounting decisions.

 

Utter c4nts.

 

Wow. Well said. C u n t $ indeed

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I believe he 'earnt' £7 million quid last year.

 

I'm really struggling with some of the views on here (and that's not including some of the politically charged rants). Some arguing footballers are great because they've visited a hospital, it's the rock stars who are the enemy. People saying clubs are right to be acting this way because the government provided a fund for this, to save the poor unfortunate low paid workers.

 

People with those views are missing a few simple points.

1) this is not directed at footballers in the sense that we think they are all evil. Many do indeed perform many community actions. However, their leadership via clubs and/or PFA have got he balance massively wrong in terms of performing their duty in protecting their members /prized employees, versus acting fairly in the wider (global) community

2) in terms of rock Stars etc., 2 wrongs don't make a right. If you're rich you should be doing your bit

3) the accountancy argument is utterly wrong and misses the point. If someone could point out the following to Andros Townsend it would be appreciated:

 

Normal times you have income and outgoings. Most outgoings are on staff, and almost uniquely in football, they are massively skewed in favour of a few elite performers. These people are arguably some of the most privileged people on the planet. I'd remember that fact.

The income is being impacted. It could be about to get a whole lot worse depending in to revenue, but at present its just essentially gate receipts and over priced burgers, not insignificant but not the main revenue stream either, at least at PL level.

 

Elsewhere, there are companies that have lost their entire revenue stream, and have no means to pay their staff, most of whom are on relatively low wages.

 

In order to prevent total social breakdown, the government I troduced a scheme to help pay these people. The bill will be picked up by the tax payer. Worth noting the tax payer is not a mysterious man with a funny name, but is you and I, earning our average salary of 20 -30k

 

Now here's where it gets to decision time for football clubs, and where they are basically acting like ****s. Like all companies, they have to rebalance their outgoings with income over this strange period which will last for an unknown time. They can either reduce their outgoings by getting their lower paid staff to be paid by the government, or ask their highest paid staff (some of the most privileged in society) to reduce their wages instead.

 

One action means that the taxpayer (you and I) helps pay for these staff at companies we have no interest in for years to come in higher taxes, the other sees highly privileged people help pay for people they work with and rely on every single day of their current working lives.

 

Of course, from an accounting point of view, it makes sense for a company to take the gre money option. And you can argue that in a progressive tax system, we are all paying, and the rich are paying more than the poor.

 

In the real world, however, the rich don't pay more tax, the clubs at the top end of the PL are so awash with money they dump millions at the feet of agents, call girls and god knows what else every year, and the players are enormously well-paid and privileged. And the staff being furloughed are people they work with every day at their own clubs!!!

 

I fail to see how anyone doesn't find this morally abhorrent. There are accountancy arguments, progressive taxation arguments, and discussions about where to draw the line in terms of first team v youth team players, how far down the football pyramid we're talking etc., but for (and I'm sure Harry Kane is a charitable Saint) the England captain at a champions league club on millions a year to be taking no pay cut while his fellow club staff (the club he's famously supported all his life) get laid off at the governments cost, to be paid for by me through my tax, when he's got nothing to do (not his fault) and people all around him in his city, country and world are being laid off in droves, losing businesses they've spent years building, losing loved ones and not being able to attend funerals, and risking lives helping people who are dying in underfunded hospitals because you and I can't really afford any more tax already is 4UCKING DISGUSTING.

 

It is not Harry Kane's fault. He hasn't made this decsision, and might be opposed to it for all we know. But that is the context. He's on millions, and expects me to pay for his masseuse at his boyhood club who he works with every day through my tax because he doesn't want a pay cut. While his boss picks up a £3 million bonus for delivering a late stadium and will no doubt get another bonus for safely navigating Spurs through coronavirus through his brilliant accounting decisions.

 

Utter c4nts.

[emoji122][emoji122][emoji122][emoji122][emoji122][emoji122]Well said.

 

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...If the season gets scrapped' date=' the club will have a large liability to refund the ticket holders for games that didn't take place. ....[/quote']

 

I'm not so sure - you would need to read the small print. Force majeure and that sort of thing

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There are a few posters on these threads on this forum who are saying' date=' enough is enough, I can't be done contributing to this morally bankrupt business anymore. I wonder if the average Liverpool fan thinks the same?[/quote']

 

Have to say I’m basically done too. Like Turkish says above, this is not the game we fell in love with as 5,6,7 year old boys. And it was real, honest love for the pure joy of a game. It’s been almost 40 years and I’m genuinely upset at what these people are doing to it. As it stands, I’m one bad move from my own football club away from fully calling it a day with the whole thing.

 

Football tv subscriptions are/will be gone irrespective now. and attending matches at st Mary’s will depend entirely on how we act as a club. Either we’re all in this together or the rich are after themselves.

 

I’m not an idiot, I know that’s basically how capitalism works, but if they can’t relent at this time of genuine global crisis affecting people they work with and rely on, they can finally f@ck off even if it means me missing out on the one passion I’ve loved all my life.

 

IMHO the best thing any right thinking professional footballer can do right now is to suspend their membership of the PFA to distance themselves from that horrific statement until it’s retracted, it’s leaders resign and they respond like they live in the real world.

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I'm not so sure - you would need to read the small print. Force majeure and that sort of thing

 

Legally, perhaps, but from the future business point of view it would be disastrous.

 

Personally I would prefer a refund but in extremis I might accept an equivalent credit towards the next season.

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Jamie Carragher as reported in The Sunday Times.

 

“Former defender Jamie Carragher said the club had lost “respect” by implementing the move which affects non-playing staff, believed to be around 200 people, although the club has said they will ensure that employees are paid 100 per cent of their salaries“

 

In February, Liverpool announced profits of £42 million (£33 million after tax) for the year ending May 2019, while turnover increased by £78 million to £533 million.

 

The club also spent £43.8 million on agents’ fees between February 2018 and the end of January 2019.

 

Carragher was among the first to criticise the decision, which feels both premature and at odds with what Liverpool purportedly stand for.

 

“Jürgen Klopp showed compassion for all at the start of this pandemic, senior players heavily involved in @premierleague players taking wage cuts,” he tweeted.

 

“Then all that respect & goodwill is lost, poor this @LFC.”

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It's my understanding, thank goodness, that Saints won't be furloughing staff or taking government grants. I think that, compared with other clubs, their behaviour is commendable.

 

But my blood is also boiling over the PFA stance. The £200m lost is taxes is totally spurious as that's a figure for a whole year assuming players don't subscribe to tax reduction schemes. As it probably wouldn't extend beyond say 4 months the real figure is probably less than £50m.

 

And that shortfall could be easily be covered with an agreement that half of the wage reduction had to be gifted to the NHS with the other half retained by clubs to pay non-playing staff, avoid government grants and support the community. Club still wins.

 

But no, the overriding principles are greed and self-interest. Desperately important to keep the millions flowing into players' (and agents') pockets. Anything to stop the bubble bursting. Power is everything and way too much power lies with the PFA and players.

 

It's hard to see how it can happen, but I am disgusted and really want to see a massive wave of public (including supporter) anger against the PFA.

 

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Your understanding is wrong unfortunately. A friend I know (plus others) who works for saints were furloughed for an initial 3 weeks on Friday. To say I’m a more than a little disappointed at the clubs actions is an understatement.

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The furlough scheme is obviously not designed for profitable companies like LFC and Spurs. Spurs for instance could take a mortgage holiday on their stadium debt.

 

I think the FA/PL/EFL should advise ant clubs taking this furlough money, that they cannot sign new players until it is payed back or paid to a charity. The idea of the state paying 80% of Liverpool's non playing wages and them splashing 50 million on Timo Werner at the same time is clearly immoral .

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The furlough scheme is obviously not designed for profitable companies like LFC and Spurs. Spurs for instance could take a mortgage holiday on their stadium debt.

 

I think the FA/PL/EFL should advise ant clubs taking this furlough money, that they cannot sign new players until it is payed back or paid to a charity. The idea of the state paying 80% of Liverpool's non playing wages and them splashing 50 million on Timo Werner at the same time is clearly immoral .

 

I agree entirely.

 

I would also add, they wouldn't have to spent 50 million on Timo Werner, they could simply continue to pay many tens of staff, north of 100k per week.

 

And for Liverpool, you can also add Newcastle, Spurs, Norwich, Bournemouth and now Southampton by the looks of it.

 

The Government cannot allow tax-payer money to go to a business who is continuing to pay its highest earners at rack-rate.

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Your understanding is wrong unfortunately. A friend I know (plus others) who works for saints were furloughed for an initial 3 weeks on Friday. To say I’m a more than a little disappointed at the clubs actions is an understatement.
That directly contradicts information I had from the club earlier this week, unless something has changed. I will have the opportunity to get a definitive answer next week.

 

"Southampton’s players, management team and wider staff continue to be paid in full as the club await the outcome of the Premier League’s video conference between stakeholders on Friday before taking any possible action. The club’s pool of hundreds of casual matchday staff are yet to be affected by the shutdown owing to an absence of home matches in recent weeks, and most full-time employees are working remotely."

 

That was Thursday. It's possible the situation changed after the PL meeting.

 

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Nauseating Liverpool:

 

 

Nauseating indeed - a classic case of privatising profits and socialising losses.....Shankley's legacy trashed by a greedy, self serving Club. Likewise, Spurs with the nauseating Levy pulling the strings; his pay packet won't suffer, nor the star players but the average employee gets jettisoned to the public purse for a lifeline.

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Your understanding is wrong unfortunately. A friend I know (plus others) who works for saints were furloughed for an initial 3 weeks on Friday. To say I’m a more than a little disappointed at the clubs actions is an understatement.

 

Very poor if true.

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The furlough scheme is obviously not designed for profitable companies like LFC and Spurs. Spurs for instance could take a mortgage holiday on their stadium debt.

 

I think the FA/PL/EFL should advise ant clubs taking this furlough money, that they cannot sign new players until it is payed back or paid to a charity. The idea of the state paying 80% of Liverpool's non playing wages and them splashing 50 million on Timo Werner at the same time is clearly immoral .

 

Do you know what? Spot on. Any PL club should not use funds for transfers, agents or loans until all furlough money is returned. Simple and reasonable. Then they’ll make a real decision on if it’s necessary or whether they can miraculously find other options.

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Jamie Carragher as reported in The Sunday Times.

 

“Former defender Jamie Carragher said the club had lost “respect” by implementing the move which affects non-playing staff, believed to be around 200 people, although the club has said they will ensure that employees are paid 100 per cent of their salaries“

 

In February, Liverpool announced profits of £42 million (£33 million after tax) for the year ending May 2019, while turnover increased by £78 million to £533 million.

 

The club also spent £43.8 million on agents’ fees between February 2018 and the end of January 2019.

 

Carragher was among the first to criticise the decision, which feels both premature and at odds with what Liverpool purportedly stand for.

 

“Jürgen Klopp showed compassion for all at the start of this pandemic, senior players heavily involved in @premierleague players taking wage cuts,” he tweeted.

 

“Then all that respect & goodwill is lost, poor this @LFC.”

 

Its a effin bad day when I agree with Jamie Carragher

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Your understanding is wrong unfortunately. A friend I know (plus others) who works for saints were furloughed for an initial 3 weeks on Friday. To say I’m a more than a little disappointed at the clubs actions is an understatement.

 

Very very disappointing if true.

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I’m hoping this is somehow wrong, I guess it’s possible it’s someone who works for an outsourced support part of the operation? (not sure that’d make it much better). But if my club are furloughing employees via the tax payer rather than support through premier league riches I am indeed done.

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Your understanding is wrong unfortunately. A friend I know (plus others) who works for saints were furloughed for an initial 3 weeks on Friday. To say I’m a more than a little disappointed at the clubs actions is an understatement.

 

That's it over for me than if true. TBH I haven't missed it, & saved ****loads of cash not going, if you told me a month ago i'd never attend a Saints game again I would have thought you were mad. N

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Morally none but difference is that other two live here and pay their taxes here. John Henry is american and has no allegiance to this country. For me that makes it worse as he is taking money from his tax paying Liverpool fans plus all taxpayers here.

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Morally none but difference is that other two live here and pay their taxes here. John Henry is american and has no allegiance to this country. For me that makes it worse as he is taking money from his tax paying Liverpool fans plus all taxpayers here.

 

You’re confusing the owner and club. Liverpool is based in the UK and subject to the same tax rules and regulations as Newcastle and Tottenham and every other PL club.

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