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Friday, March 29, 2024

Brighton manager and senior officials take pay cuts

Duration: 02:29s 0 shares 4 views

Brighton manager and senior officials take pay cuts
Brighton manager and senior officials take pay cuts

Graham Potter says voluntary pay cuts "felt like a normal thing to offer".

SHOWS: BRIGHTON, ENGLAND, UK (APRIL 2, 2020) (BRIGHTON AND HOVE ALBION FC HANDOUT - ACCESS ALL) 1.

(SOUNDBITE) (English) BRIGHTON AND HOVE ALBION MANAGER, GRAHAM POTTER, ON TAKING A PAY CUT SAYING: "Yeah, I spoke with Tony (Bloom, club chairman), I can't remember, the day's have all morphed into one to be honest, but a few days ago, a couple of weeks ago I think it was.

It just felt like a normal thing to offer him, because he's been good to me.

I know the pressure he's under as a chairman and the challenges that he faces.

So, as Paul (Barber, club deputy chairman and chief executive) has said, it's a small part that we can do, but I think it was an important offer.

Tony being Tony, said thank you very much, but at the moment we're working through things.

And as things have moved forward, I think we've come to the right decision to do what we've done." 2.

WHITE FLASH 3.

(SOUNDBITE) (English) BRIGHTON AND HOVE ALBION MANAGER, GRAHAM POTTER, ON UPDATE ON THREE PLAYERS WHO TESTED POSITIVE FOR CORONAVIRUS, SAYING: "As far as I know, the guys who've tested positive (are) symptom-free now, made a good recovery.

I think we've had a couple more tested with symptoms, but no, there's no problems, there's nothing to worry about.

We're obviously fortunate in that regard." 4.

WHITE FLASH 5.

(SOUNDBITE) (English) BRIGHTON AND HOVE ALBION MANAGER, GRAHAM POTTER, SAYING: "Not really, not at any level.

I think the players, again I can only speak of ours, they're aware of the situation.

I know that they've made their own private charitable donations without any sort of direction from us, so, they've done that off their own back.

And I think they'll be, you know, I'm sure they'll be willing to help the football club.

It's up to them and the PFA to come to the right conclusions I think." 6.

WHITE FLASH 7.

(SOUNDBITE) (English) BRIGHTON AND HOVE ALBION DEPUTY CHAIRMAN AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE, PAUL BARBER, ON TAKING A PAY CUT, SAYING: "We all know what a very difficult time it is for everybody.

Right away across the country.

You know people are losing jobs, people are facing furlough, facing a lot of uncertainty.

We felt (himself, Potter and club technical director Dan Ashworth) that the three of us are the visible faces of the club, along with the chairman, and we wanted to sort of make a gesture.

A small gesture to help him through a difficult time, but also hopefully, it will enable us to protect as many jobs within our club as we can." 8.

WHITE FLASH 9.

(SOUNDBITE) (English) BRIGHTON AND HOVE ALBION DEPUTY CHAIRMAN AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE, PAUL BARBER, ON PREMIER LEAGUE RETURNING, SAYING: "I think we also are realistic, and we are increasingly pragmatic about the challenges that we're all facing, and the country is facing.

You know, this is, as I said before, this is a national emergency and we can't be blind to that, but we also know that football plays a massive part in people's lives.

And the sooner we can play again, hopefully, we can lift the very difficult times that we're currently experiencing.

But at the moment we can't really think about that too much.

People's health is number one priority and we have to be sensible and we cannot simply return to play football if it's not safe to do so.

That's absolutely out of the question." STORY: Premier League club Brighton & Hove Albion's manager and some senior officials have each taken voluntary pay cuts for the next three months.

Manager Graham Potter, deputy chairman and chief executive Paul Barber and technical director Dan Ashworth announced the move on Thursday (April 2).

Talks between the Premier League and the players union PFA over potential wage cuts or deferrals were continuing after no agreement was reached on Wednesday (April 1).

Britain's Health Secretary Matt Hancock said players need to "play their part" and take a pay cut as the country tries to fight the coronavirus pandemic which has led to several non-playing club staff being furloughed.

Hancock echoed Julian Knight's, the head of a parliamentary committee, belief that clubs should face a windfall tax unless they tackle the "obscene situation" of players earning fortunes while other employees take pay cuts.

Player wages, with some paid many times more per week than the average Briton takes home in a year, have become a hot topic as club staff are furloughed under a government job retention scheme.

Speaking via a video conference arranged by the club, Potter said his pay cut "felt like a normal thing to offer", while also confirming that the three players who had previously tested positive for coronavirus were now symptom-free.

Potter added that his players and the PFA would "come to the right conclusions" regarding further pay cuts, while Barber said that he felt the decision to receive a pay cut was a small gesture during a difficult time, before saying that although football can lift spirits, it would not return if unsafe to do so.

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