COVID-19: Staff Update Club News Due to the unprecedented impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Barnsley Football Club will utilise the Government’s furlough scheme, for members of staff unable to work at this time. Continue reading on the official site...
I thought we were against football clubs using the furlough system to pay backroom staff while continuing to pay players thousands per week.
There was a list of shame on here regarding the clubs that had done it and they got dogs abuse. Personally I think they should do it, but start with the players, so backroom staff on wages a fraction of that of players can still collect a full wage.
We are, well some of us anyway although I'm less angry about Barnsley FC using the scheme than I am about premier league clubs using it. The principle of players v non playing staff remains the same to me though regardless of the division they are in.
It says across ALL departments. The playing staff is a department. Which players have been furloughed? Or do they actually mean 'certain staff who we don't hope to make money from'?
The club should not be using a government scheme that costs the tax payer money while it continues to pay players thousands of pounds a week. Its disgusting if that is the case. I certainly hope that isn't the case but I am inclined to believe it is.
Completely agree. If they furlough the players too, I can accept it as it’s clearly a necessity. To furlough non-playing staff whilst still paying playing staff then I’m fully against it. That statement doesn’t give any details so I will presume that this is what they’ve done, or else I’m sure they’d be making more noise about it.
The thing is though, if games are going to be played again soon, we need players still keeping fit and training however they can. We’re also doing interviews and what not with some of them periodically. If we furlough them we can’t instruct them on what to eat, how to train or anything else. We can hope that they will anyway but if the games end up back on and we’re still fighting a relegation battle where the odds are already stacked against us, you don’t want players to have had no instruction for however many months and either guessing at their own made up training or possibly doing nothing at all.
There’s also some chatter that players would be able to leave for nothing if they were furloughed, due to the batshit nature of player contracts. Makes sense to me that clubs would see that as a last resort
100% If we furlough players we're essentially not allowed to ask them to do anything linked to their jobs. That would mean following diets, training plans, etc. If we were caught asking players to perform any kind of duties linked to their jobs then we'd be forced to pay their salaries in full.
Actually having looked into it apparently Millwall planned to furlough all players but top up their wages (which would have saved them around £60k per week) but scrapped the plans as it meant they couldn't give them personal training plans anymore if they did so.
Nothing wrong with that. You're just not allowed to have any expectations that they'll see it through. If they're not furloughed you could, in theory, check in on them every day.