Sheffield United’s Chris Wilder urges football unity in battle with coronavirus

Wilder manages in the world’s most lucrative domestic football league, but his career started in non-league football, and he wants measures to protect the whole game with clubs at all levels under threat from a lack of income.

On Friday the Premier League announced it is advancing £125m in payments due this summer to Football League and National League clubs.

“It isn’t just about the Premier League, this is about the welfare of the game right the way through the pyramid,” he told Football Focus. “Football in this country is like no other country in terms of the participation off the pitch and on the pitch so we have to look after clubs below us as well.

“It’s important we don’t just look after ourselves.

“It is a little bit disappointing now when you see clubs making individual statements and going their own way.

“It is important we pull together as an industry.”

The search for unanimity has made action uncomfortably slow, with players criticised for not agreeing to pay cuts or even wage deferrals when many clubs are furloughing non-playing staff.

Health secretary Matt Hancock was one of those who called for top-flight players to take a pay cut.

“It’s always disappointing when some people are deflecting and finger-pointing when people are seriously ill and dying,” commented Wilder.

“Football is a major player in this country a lot of footballers, past and present, have got a huge conscience about what we do.

“I am sure we will do the right thing through the PFA for the players, the LMA who look after the managers, the Premier League, EFL and the Football Association.”

Editor’s note: first and foremost - and rarely have I written down these words with more sincerity - I hope this finds you well.

Almost certainly you are here because you value the quality and the integrity of the journalism produced by The Yorkshire Post’s journalists - almost all of which live alongside you in Yorkshire, spending the wages they earn with Yorkshire businesses - who last year took this title to the industry watchdog’s Most Trusted Newspaper in Britain accolade.

And that is why I must make an urgent request of you: as advertising revenue declines, your support becomes evermore crucial to the maintenance of the journalistic standards expected of The Yorkshire Post. If you can, safely, please buy a paper or take up a subscription. We want to continue to make you proud of Yorkshire’s National Newspaper but we are going to need your help.

Postal subscription copies can be ordered by calling 0330 4030066 or by emailing [email protected]. Vouchers, to be exchanged at retail sales outlets - our newsagents need you, too - can be subscribed to by contacting subscriptions on 0330 1235950 or by visiting www.localsubsplus.co.uk where you should select The Yorkshire Post from the list of titles available.

If you want to help right now, download our tablet app from the App / Play Stores. Every contribution you make helps to provide this county with the best regional journalism in the country.

Sincerely. Thank you.

James Mitchinson

Editor