Tottenham Hotspur‘s staff were only informed they would be forced to take a 20 per cent pay cut half an hour before club chairman Daniel Levy’s public statement.
Levy notified the club’s non-playing staff of the pay cuts across April and May in an email at 10am on Tuesday, adding that the measure was being taken in order to preserve jobs in the long-term.
The Independent has been told that some staff were also privately encouraged to take their annual holiday leave now as opposed to saving it until later in the year.
The public announcement was made public just 30 minutes later, with Levy writing: “Yesterday, having already taken steps to reduce costs, we ourselves made the difficult decision – in order to protect jobs – to reduce the remuneration of all 550 non-playing directors and employees for April and May by 20 per cent utilising, where appropriate, the Government’s furlough scheme. We shall continue to review this position.”
The response to Spurs’ decision was aggravated by news that Levy had been paid a £7m salary last year, including a £3m bonus for the build of the club’s new stadium, despite its completion taking a year longer than expected.
Other European clubs, such as Barcelona and Bayern Munich, have both agreed pay cuts in order to prevent the dismissal of any non-playing staff, and Levy conspicuously urged players and coaches to “do their bit”.
“We hope the current discussions between the Premier League, PFA and LMA will result in players and coaches doing their bit for the football eco-system,” he wrote.
Newcastle and Norwich have also both begun the process of placing non-playing staff on furlough.
