FA high-earners face 30 per cent wage cut as Liverpool perform U-turn

FA chief executive Mark Bullingham outlined the cost-saving measures in a message to staff yesterday afternoon.

It was reported that England manager Gareth Southgate would sacrifice £225,000 over the next three months under the plan.

Bullingham proposed that staff earning more than £50,000 annually should take a cut of 7.5 per cent.

The FA is also looking at whether to utilise the Government’s coronavirus job retention scheme to furlough staff, Bullingham said.

“We are proposing that all employees earning £50,000 or more per annum will take a temporary pay reduction of 7.5 per cent,” Bullingham said.

“In the spirit of those on higher salaries taking the greater responsibility, the senior management team have agreed to cut their pay by 15 per cent with the highest earners in the organisation agreeing to reduce their pay by up to 30 per cent.”

Bullingham continued: “We are also looking into what options are available to us through the Government’s furlough scheme as a contingency plan, while we continue to plan for the return of football, once it is safe to do so.

“These are extraordinary and challenging times and we do not take these decisions lightly. However, as an organisation we will support each other as best we can.”

Liverpool, meanwhile, have performed a U-turn on their decision to place some non-playing staff on the Government’s furlough scheme as chief executive Peter Moore admitted they came to the “wrong conclusion”.

Fans and former players reacted angrily to the news Liverpool, who in February revealed pre-tax profits of £42m for 2018-19, intended to use the taxpayer-funded initiative during the coronavirus pandemic.

Under the initiative, the Government would have paid 80 per cent of wages up to £2,500 of around 200 staff it was understood to affect, while Liverpool announced they would top up the remainder of the salaries.

Fellow Premier League clubs Newcastle, Tottenham, Norwich and Bournemouth have already confirmed their plan to furlough some non-playing staff but the reigning European champions have now backtracked on the decision they made public over the weekend.

Moore admitted Liverpool must now find another way to mitigate potential losses in a season that was shutdown with the Merseysiders runaway leaders in the top-flight, firmly on course for a first Premier League title.

In a letter to the club’s fans, Moore said: “We believe we came to the wrong conclusion last week to announce that we intended to apply to the coronavirus retention scheme and furlough staff due to the suspension of the Premier League football calendar, and are truly sorry for that.

“Our intentions were, and still are, to ensure the entire workforce is given as much protection as possible from redundancy and/or loss of earnings during this unprecedented period.

“We are therefore committed to finding alternative ways to operate while there are no football matches being played that ensures we are not applying for the government relief scheme.”