Player Power, contracts, and wage deferrals

[mattitheowl]

29 minutes ago, GLOwl said:

I was assuming that furloughing players wasn't a breach of contract, I'm not a legal expert so can't say whether this is ok or not, just giving my opinion on what I think should happen. I would have liked all professional players to have reduced their salaries by now, but the fact that very few have speaks volumes and is quite disgusting

 

They have been advised not to do anything on an individual level by their union.  They are trying to come to a collective agreement.

[OwlsMan1961]

There are some interesting times ahead, those players who are out of contract in June or whenever will be in limbo because surely no other clubs will be able to offer them contracts either due to all the doubt surrounding finances and 'restarting' the game, so as to speak !

[GLOwl]

22 minutes ago, mattitheowl said:

 

They have been advised not to do anything on an individual level by their union.  They are trying to come to a collective agreement.

There's that lovely man Gordon Taylor for you. He's done allright for himself, and his son. Thought he'd agreed to step down a year ago? Hang on, I see a pattern here.

 

Quite a few league 1 and 2 clubs have already furloughed players, maybe that is the way to go?

 

Anyway, I think most agree that players are selfish and living in a moral vacuum.

[@owlstalk]

32 minutes ago, OwlsMan1961 said:

There are some interesting times ahead, those players who are out of contract in June or whenever will be in limbo because surely no other clubs will be able to offer them contracts either due to all the doubt surrounding finances and 'restarting' the game, so as to speak !

 

Yeah bang on

 

Thats why we won’t see any players accepting any pay decrease, or furlough etc 

[scram]

Nobody knows how this will play out - FIFA/UEFA are finding out that their rules aren't THE rules and the law of the land is way above them

 

As always there will be winners and losers

 

Imagine a club in relegation trouble - or in a great ;position to get promoted and several key players are out of contract at the end of June - they can demand silly money to sign a short term contract extension

 

And the precariousness of the clubs position can make it difficult to negotiate a longer term contract - for eg a player might nor want commit if the club is gonna possibly be relegated  - or may offset that by asking for obscene money

 

Similarly if a club is about to be promoted they are in a position to hold a club to ransom to sign a short term deal

 

Player and agents are well aware of this - it will be a players market for some - a graveyard for tohers

 

But ultimately clubs will be held to ransom

[legendaryswan]

Players are payed to play football,by law thats not possible in this climate.

Revenue streams for clubs are severly diminished while theres no match day revenue,which goes a long way to meeting player incomes.

Player contracts need to be frozen,back to the date football stopped,and then re engaged once football restarts to complete competitions.

I find it hard to justify paying a player his full salary while hes not expected to earn his living,some common sense needs to be applied here,before clubs begin to go bankrupt.The EFL,FA and UEFA should have sorted this out when football was closed down and issued guidance,if clubs start to go to the wall whose going to employ the players?

[Guest LondonOwl313]

Just now, legendaryswan said:

Players are payed to play football,by law thats not possible in this climate.

Revenue streams for clubs are severly diminished while theres no match day revenue,which goes a long way to meeting player incomes.

Player contracts need to be frozen,back to the date football stopped,and then re engaged once football restarts to complete competitions.

I find it hard to justify paying a player his full salary while hes not expected to earn his living,some common sense needs to be applied here,before clubs begin to go bankrupt.The EFL,FA and UEFA should have sorted this out when football was closed down and issued guidance,if clubs start to go to the wall whose going to employ the players?

This is exactly the situation.. would suit everyone to just start from whenever we can return which is probably in 12 months.. some on here seem to think that footballers are hard done to financially though and they need their full 10k a week to get by. Jokers

[scram]

Player contracts are time limited and watertight

 

Unless there is a clause in the contracts stating they can be paused should an event occur which prevents them playing (there isn't) - then the contracts will expire on the specified date

 

I'm not a big fan of the rampant player power however this cannot be placed at the feet of the players

 

It's football governance to blame as usual - but they will try to apportion blame elsewhere - as usual

[scram]

5 minutes ago, LondonOwl313 said:

This is exactly the situation.. would suit everyone to just start from whenever we can return which is probably in 12 months.. some on here seem to think that footballers are hard done to financially though and they need their full 10k a week to get by. Jokers

 

Return to the same season in 12 months?

 

Seriously?

[Guest LondonOwl313]

5 minutes ago, scram said:

 

Return to the same season in 12 months?

 

Seriously?

I’m basing that on the fact that being realistic we can’t go back to normal without a vaccine, and it will be this time next year when we hopefully can, and even that’s a stretch.

 

Plus all the issues with just ending the season, unfairness on various parties with promotion and relegation.

 

And if it was say March 2021 when we can return, it will mess the calendar up starting a new season from there.

[legendaryswan]

7 minutes ago, LondonOwl313 said:

I’m basing that on the fact that being realistic we can’t go back to normal without a vaccine, and it will be this time next year when we hopefully can, and even that’s a stretch.

 

Plus all the issues with just ending the season, unfairness on various parties with promotion and relegation.

 

And if it was say March 2021 when we can return, it will mess the calendar up starting a new season from there.

If contracts expire in June and players leave,I cant see how sides can be expected to finish off the season,has to be the same squad surely,at the same strength,you cant continue the same season with a changed squad as the transfer window closed in January 2020 and a new window for transfers cant open untill the last season is boxed off

[Guest LondonOwl313]

2 minutes ago, legendaryswan said:

If contracts expire in June and players leave,I cant see how sides can be expected to finish off the season,has to be the same squad surely,at the same strength,you cant continue the same season with a changed squad as the transfer window closed in January 2020 and a new window for transfers cant open untill the last season is boxed off

If it was down to me, I’d aim for a March 2021 restart with normal full stadiums. I’d add 12 months on to all contracts so that squads remain exactly as they are now with the next transfer window in summer 2021. Then I’d furlough all the players on £2.5k a month until next March. That way all clubs can carry on with no risk of going bust, all seasons get to finish, nobody needs a refund on tickets etc. Works fine but obviously it won’t happen because the players wouldn’t accept it and kick off

 

Instead they’ll mess about and try to restart it ASAP without fans there, then have issues with loads of postponements as teams will be self isolating all the time after being exposed. Plus financially it won’t work well as there’s no matchday revenue 

[scram]

Apart from the fact you cannot force players to extend contracts....

 

The season will restart without fans - in the PL at least... 

 

Thats the plan

[legendaryswan]

5 minutes ago, LondonOwl313 said:

If it was down to me, I’d aim for a March 2021 restart with normal full stadiums. I’d add 12 months on to all contracts so that squads remain exactly as they are now with the next transfer window in summer 2021. Then I’d furlough all the players on £2.5k a month until next March. That way all clubs can carry on with no risk of going bust, all seasons get to finish, nobody needs a refund on tickets etc. Works fine but obviously it won’t happen because the players wouldn’t accept it and kick off

 

Instead they’ll mess about and try to restart it ASAP without fans there, then have issues with loads of postponements as teams will be self isolating all the time after being exposed. Plus financially it won’t work well as there’s no matchday revenue 

If clubs cant put fans in stadiums before august,I can see a few championship clubs splattered on the road,and a lot of League 2 and 3 gone,and a hell of a lot of footballers in the jobcentre.

Football needs to wake up,many walks of life are putting themselves at risk for a pittance,some are paying with their lives

[S36 OWL]

Im sick to the pit of my stomach with what football has become. It used to be a working mans game , now its all about greed. Im hoping this current crisis makes the game press the reset button and return to what it once was. 

[Guest LondonOwl313]

1 minute ago, scram said:

Apart from the fact you cannot force players to extend contracts....

 

The season will restart without fans - in the PL at least... 

 

Thats the plan

I know that’s what they will do.. but think of the knock on effects. The players would obviously have to agree collectively under my plan.. I know it’s unrealistic but it would work really well because everything would fit together with minimal disruption.

 

Heres a list of things I think will go wrong with restarting without fans:

 

1. By the time that’s even possible, we’re talking late summer time as we’d need to be out of lockdown for it to be allowed. UEFA are talking about August for finishing the European competitions and end of July for finishing domestic leagues. So that means you’d have to have a break and a pre season, can’t start 2020-21 season until early November assuming 2019-20 finishes end of August. How does that work when you have the euros next summer.. there’s no scope to cut 3 months off the season and condense it. Even if we have only a month between it’s still not feasible.

 

2. Playing without fans means vastly reduced revenues, especially outside the prem. Still can’t see how clubs will be able to swallow the cost of paying players full whack with no matchday revenue. Also will mean they use up any cash reserves which means much lower  transfer and wage budgets going forward. Plus loads of clubs will go under doing this if they don’t have a wealthy owner. So the way I see it, players either take the hit now or down the line because there’s no going back to normal financially on this.

 

3. Then specifically with the virus, there will be too many cases linked to different teams throughout the season and then loads of games will be postponed as further teams have to self isolate etc. Against a calendar which has no space in it as outlined in point 1.

 

If I can think of these issues in advance just think of how many other ones there’ll be in real time. It’s not going to work at all well. They should just wait until we can go back to normal and take the financial hit now.

[Blue and white]

7 hours ago, 31Dec1966 said:

Players can continue to take their full wages until their contract ends if they want. 

 

However clubs simply have not got the income to pay these contracts for very long.

.

So, it is obvious that many, many clubs will be defunct in the next six months, thus reducing employment prospects for footballers on ANY wages. . To reduce the chances of this, players could voluntarily take substantial pay cuts.

 

Even if clubs survive fans may not be prepared to pay to watch these players anymore. Indeed many fans won't have the disposable income to watch anyway 

Might be a good thing and a wake up call to football in general that stupid inflated contracts are a thing of the past.

[legendaryswan]

29 minutes ago, Blue and white said:

Might be a good thing and a wake up call to football in general that stupid inflated contracts are a thing of the past.

I would love this to be the end of the gravy train,agents and hangers on.

The wealth thats in football should have ALL been invested in the fans and stadiums,state of the art across all 4 divisions,with facilties that left nothing to be desired,with players payed handsomley,but no more than those that save our lives,the doctors,and a cieling put on wages to discourage wealthy owners.

Hopefully we havent missed the boat,and the covid19 can salvage something for the fans,lets have the multi millions spent on us for a change,bring in a wage cap,and make facilities safe,comfortable and uptodate for EVERY supporter of EVERY club across the UK and put the fans first!

[Blue and white]

6 minutes ago, legendaryswan said:

I would love this to be the end of the gravy train,agents and hangers on.

The wealth thats in football should have ALL been invested in the fans and stadiums,state of the art across all 4 divisions,with facilties that left nothing to be desired,with players payed handsomley,but no more than those that save our lives,the doctors,and a cieling put on wages to discourage wealthy owners.

Hopefully we havent missed the boat,and the covid19 can salvage something for the fans,lets have the multi millions spent on us for a change,bring in a wage cap,and make facilities safe,comfortable and uptodate for EVERY supporter of EVERY club across the UK and put the fans first!

I've always said the amount of money that is involved in football today is unsustainable and so its proving.

Instead of the EFL imposing petty rules at championship level maybe FIFA needs to take a look at the state of thing as a whole because it can't continue.