Players have stepped up for NHS - now they must help their clubs

The fantastic gesture of Premier League footballers to work together to set up a fund for NHS staff has been rightly applauded but it will not stop the conversation about salary cuts.

There have been two separate off-field issues for players since the coronavirus outbreak stopped football and blocked clubs’ revenue streams. What more could the players do to help their communities in a time of crisis? What more can the players do to help their own sport?

The players have shown incredible leadership with the first question. Now they must all step up for the second in the same way as some of Europe’s biggest clubs.

Bayern Munich players were among the first to accept a 20 per cent pay cut. Barcelona’s reduced salaries by 70 per cent, and Real Madrid’s also reached agreement of up 20 per cent cuts this week.

I suspect Southampton’s decision to become the first Premier League club to defer 10 percent of player wages for three months will start a chain reaction with others following suit.

Helping out front-line emergency services is wonderful, but it must be separated from the urgent need to ease football’s economic burden.

An call from Health Secretary Matt Hancock for Premier League stars to "play their part" for the NHS was nonsense from the start. I know many wanted to offer financial assistance to help well before Hancock’s remarks. You do not need to look too far to see how players do their bit every season through foundations and community work. Hancock is opportunistic with no idea what he is talking about, although in a strange way his remarks took pressure off players and the Professional Footballers Association, because everyone with the game’s best interest at heart defended the players and had a go back.

It is not the responsibility of wealthy sportsmen to stand apart and fund the NHS. That is the job of government. I find it extraordinary that four years after the proposals of the last health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, to cut the pay of junior doctors by 40 per cent and increase antisocial hours — a policy that prompted strike action — his successor is calling on footballers to do more. That is disgraceful.

I can speak with a personal connection. My mum is an NHS nurse in Southport and Ormskirk Hospital.

It is not the first time footballers have been thrust centre stage on the issue.

In 2007, 239 Premier League players and some managers agreed to donate a day’s wages to NHS nurses. It was a cause I obviously supported.

The circumstances were similar after the discrepancy between players' and nurses' salaries became part of a national debate. As captain and vice-captain, Steven Gerrard and I spoke to the Liverpool squad and said we felt it was a good idea and we should work as a group to support the cause.

There was no unanimous agreement. Some players pointed out that they had their own charities and foundations or alternative causes where they would prefer to send money. Others thought it fairer if any financial pledge went to nurses in their own country rather than England. A couple more did not understand why footballers, as opposed to other professions who are paid handsomely, were targeted.

“What about Formula One drivers? Actors? Chief executives of the biggest companies?” was an argument.

“We already pay high taxes. It is not up to us where that money goes,” was another.

Each of us had a personal take. We all have different political beliefs, some more open about discussing them than others. There was no consensus 13 years ago so we did not act as one.

That experience informed me it would be the same in 2020 when the story emerged of captains setting up an NHS fund. It will work because the size of donations are anonymous and optional rather than compulsory.

Each player has his own circumstances which should be understood and respected.

The same is true of clubs.

Just as we embrace the argument that it is wrong and unfair to brand every footballer in the same way, we should be careful about comments from the PFA about owners’ finances, the implication being that they are seeking staff pay cuts for themselves rather than to help or even save their business.

That is a shoddy argument at a time like this: a blame game blurring the reality.  It sounds like a lame excuse for not dealing with chairmen and chief executives, some of whom see grave times ahead.

Premier League clubs are subsidised by broadcast, commercial and matchday revenue. No live football costs millions a day. Where do players think their wages come from? Are they naively buying into a strange and unhelpful PFA suggestion that the money goes in and out of the bank account of a billionaire owner? The clubs have a business model which is unsustainable without the three main revenue streams.

I accept that there are some owners who have only themselves to blame for losing the trust of their players and staff. But you cannot seriously look around the football industry now without recognising how many will eventually be in deep trouble if their highest paid staff do not compromise. That will impact all of us: playing staff, non-playing staff and supporters.

Deals can only be achieved on a club-by-club basis, players engaging with their employers rather than trying to agree a Premier League-wide policy. Attempts to do the latter have so far failed and I do not see that changing.  That is why Southampton acted on Thursday and others must and will follow suit.

Some clubs have indicated they are financially secure enough to avoid pay cuts for players. Others are desperate to enforce them but have a poor relationship with their staff.

There will be other players who are waiting to see how talks pan out, eager to stand side-by-side with their fellow professionals rather than going alone. I appreciate the "one for all, all for one" attitude but they cannot afford to keep waiting and must work individual formulas for their own squad. Before their NHS fund announcement you could sense public opinion turning against the players. They need to prevent that happening again over the next few weeks.

Again, each circumstance will be different. A player coming to the end of his contract or career, with no financial guarantee beyond this season, or a youngster who has just broken into the first team from the academy and received a higher salary should not be treated the same as the £200,000 a week 25-year-old with four years left on his deal.

Those discussions must be held internally, not on a Premier League or PFA conference call.

The players have shown their true colours for a noble cause by assisting the NHS. Now they must remember those they wear on a weekly basis to ease the financial burden on their clubs.