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Furloughing staff

sidford

Well-Known Member
Oct 20, 2003
11,324
29,601
How does the club's decision to furlough staff sit with you? Does it make a difference to how you feel about the club?

I'm not one for grandstanding or for taking the morale high ground just because I can but have to admit it sits really bad with me. Given the amount I have invested in supporting spurs (time,money etc) I always try to magnify the good and downplay the bad elements but finding it really hard to downplay this decision.

The club has made the highest profit ever in premier League and has 3 of the top 5 profits ever in the league, been profitable 7 years in a row, have restructured stadium debt so that it is not a noose around the club's neck and yet they can't pay 550 non playing staff their wage?!

Clubs that have nowhere near our financial strength are paying staff their full wages while we don't even top up the furlough payment to ensure they get their full salary.

I will think long and hard before traveling back to London, spending money In the stadium, club shop etc when all of this is over as it really has left a sour taste in mouth.

Am I alone in feeling a bit let down? I freely admit thats on me as I thought that the club I supported had better values than this but just wanted to see if others had views on this.
 
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beats1

Well-Known Member
Feb 22, 2010
30,006
29,551
To be honest I don't mind it, if the club furloughed staff as long as they topped off the wages to 100%.

Its an interesting dilemma, there is a potential that football clubs may be in big financial trouble over this.

If clubs don't get their full tv money, Ticket income and end up having to pay their footballers their full wages.

Then the game could fundamentally be broken as come 1st of July teams will have lost one year off their players contract. All of sudden we have lost the value of players who had 2 years left(at the start of this season) on their contract who command a fee in the summer to nothing!

Players are expected to take a wage cut but for players you're asking for them to take money off their lifetime wage. For example, a player like Vertonghen, isn't going to earn alot of money after this contract and will end up retiring in the not too distant future. After retiring he will never earn the same amount of money again.

Then talking of footballers, they may feel aggrieved unlike most industries they are in a multi-millionaire class and unlike their peers in that class they pay tax on all their wages.(due to HMRC cutting down on tax evasion) So they feel like they probably deserve the wages they earn.

Then back to clubs
Crystal Palace last season made a £36m loss last season and this season have a wage to turnover ratio of 78%.

If we have 6 months of no football, how are those clubs supposed to play their players even with a reduced turnover?
 
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topper

Well-Known Member
Jan 27, 2008
3,806
16,254
How does the club's decision to furlough staff sit with you? Does it make a difference to how you feel about the club?

I'm not one for grandstanding or for taking the morale high ground just because I can but have to admit it sits really bad with me. Given the amount I have invested in supporting spurs (time,money etc) I always try to magnify the good and downplay the bad elements but finding it really hard to downplay this decision.

The club has made the highest profit ever in premier League and has 3 of the top 5 profits ever in the league, been profitable 7 years in a row, have restructured stadium debt so that it is not a noose around the club's neck and yet they can't pay 550 non playing staff their wage?!

Clubs that have nowhere near our financial strength are paying staff their full wages while we don't even top up the furlough payment to ensure they get their full salary.

I will think long and hard before traveling back to London, spending money In the stadium, club shop etc when all of this is over as it really has left a sour taste in mouth.

Am I alone in feeling a bit let down? I freely admit thats on me as I thought that the club I supported had better values than this.
No, you're not alone
 

JCRD

Well-Known Member
Aug 10, 2018
19,153
30,013
I think it is a pathetic and disgraceful decision and one that will come back to hurt Levy i think when he is still trying to get naming rights.

Brand perception and PR is important and people wont forget after the event. I think it is ill judged personally.
 

Col_M

Pointing out the Obvious
Feb 28, 2012
22,637
45,676
Is the club even allowed to make up the 20% difference, doesn’t that contravene some of the tax laws?

I would question why a football club can’t apply the same conditions that are available to every other business without it being seen as a pariah. Why is a club expected to have take financial hit and not take government help, that is freely available?
The thing that doesn’t sit right is that the players aren’t losing pay, is that because they are still “working from home”.

Far too many Disgusted from Purleys around with access to social media expressing opinions but not applying them evenly.
 

Rob

The Boss
Admin
Jun 8, 2003
28,014
65,116
Is the club even allowed to make up the 20% difference, doesn’t that contravene some of the tax laws?

Of course they can top it up. That's explicit as part of the furlough scheme. Not doing it automatically is disgraceful.
 

Col_M

Pointing out the Obvious
Feb 28, 2012
22,637
45,676
Of course they can top it up. That's explicit as part of the furlough scheme. Not doing it automatically is disgraceful.

I ask because we have an undergrad on a zero hours contract. He works when he has the time away from his uni and part time job. He’s been furloughed and the rules are explicit in that he is not allowed to earn anything.
 

carmeldevil

Well-Known Member
May 15, 2018
7,588
45,109
The optics and PR is stupid. Levy and co should have known better. They can afford paying a full staff for a few months. There’s no reason to do this.
 

SpursSince1980

Well-Known Member
Jan 23, 2011
4,732
14,441
The optics and PR is stupid. Levy and co should have known better. They can afford paying a full staff for a few months. There’s no reason to do this.
Agreed. It was not well handled. I have no idea if it was needed or not. But I highly doubt there won't be others far behind. Which is simply tragic.

I think some players are doing what they can to give back. Others, maybe not so much. Even if all the Spurs snr players agreed to a 20% cut to their weekly paycheck for three months, it would pay for all of the staff, a few times over I'd imagine.
 

Rob

The Boss
Admin
Jun 8, 2003
28,014
65,116
I ask because we have an undergrad on a zero hours contract. He works when he has the time away from his uni and part time job. He’s been furloughed and the rules are explicit in that he is not allowed to earn anything.

Yes. You're not allowed to do any work for anyone (including your employers). Your employer can top up the 80% to 100% but you can't then "work from home" for that extra 20%.
 

jay2040

Well-Known Member
Aug 31, 2012
2,636
4,165
Yes. You're not allowed to do any work for anyone (including your employers). Your employer can top up the 80% to 100% but you can't then "work from home" for that extra 20%.

My understanding was that being furloughed by one employer does not stop you working for another employer .
 

Col_M

Pointing out the Obvious
Feb 28, 2012
22,637
45,676
My understanding was that being furloughed by one employer does not stop you working for another employer .

it does stop you. You may be fined an HMRC reserve the right to investigate. Unless of course you quit the job you are furloughed from.
 

jay2040

Well-Known Member
Aug 31, 2012
2,636
4,165
It seems Levy is making the decision without any emotion .

So many unknowns and the players are assets that need protecting whilst the unfortunately the non playing staff are easily replaced. Had there been no scheme on place he could have got rid of all of them and got new staff in when season kicks off again.

As a business Spurs have paid tax so if it is a scheme made available and Levy qualifies don't see the harm.

The other banking benefits by way of freezing interest payments etc may be linked to this decision.

We had revenues based on other events too being held at the stadium which has also been lost in the short term.

It would have been good had the players and club come out and made a joint decision to subsidise the wages however that did not happen!
 

jay2040

Well-Known Member
Aug 31, 2012
2,636
4,165
it does stop you. You may be fined an HMRC reserve the right to investigate. Unless of course you quit the job you are furloughed from.

I got this from the BBC website. Maybe I misinterpreted or its changed since-

You can't do any work for your employer if you have been furloughed.

If you have more than one employer, you can receive furlough from any of them, up to a maximum of £2,500 a month per employer.

You can also continue working for any that still need you. In theory you could do work for a new employer, provided you were not breaching any existing contracts or the coronavirus restrictions.
 
D

Deleted member 27995

No.

It still doesn't bother me.

The anarchic side of me would like to see it all burn. It's no big impact on my life, the greed of man will continue.

The side of me that can separate the idealist and the realist will understand this.

I haven't given the club my money in years, them furloughing 'x' amount of staff doesn't change my love for the football club.
 
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