MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 03rd April, 2020) UK Premier League soccer players should take a pay cut to show solidarity with members of the National Health Service during the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Matt Hancock said during a press briefing on Thursday.
Hancock, who was making his first public appearance after recovering from the coronavirus disease, urged Premier League players to reduce their salaries, given that health care professionals had lost their lives battling the disease.
"Given the sacrifices that many people are making, including some of my colleagues in the NHS who have made the ultimate sacrifice of going into work and have caught the disease and have sadly died, I think the first thing that Premier League footballers can do is make a contribution, take a pay cut and play their part," the minister said.
Earlier in the day, several soccer teams in the UK, including Tottenham Hotspur, faced criticism for triggering a government scheme designed to protect those who have lost their jobs during the economic disruption caused by the crisis. The scheme, announced by Chancellor Rishi Sunak, guarantees employees as much as 80 percent of their wages, up to 2,500 Pounds per month ($3,104).
In a letter to Sunak, Conservative Member of Parliament Julian Knight slammed the country's soccer players for not offering to take pay cuts while non-playing members of staff were being furloughed.
Later in the day, the Professional Footballers' Association, the UK soccer players union, said that players will have to share the financial burden of the ongoing epidemiological and economic crisis.
Players from a number of Europe's biggest soccer clubs have already announced that they will take a wage cut in order to protect the incomes of non-playing staff. Atletico Madrid and Barcelona players will reduce their wages temporarily by 70 percent in order support their respective teams' employees.
Additionally, the players and coaching staff of Italy's Juventus will forego 90 million Euros ($97.7 million) to help their club through the crisis caused by the coronavirus disease.
