Match of the Day presenter Gary Lineker has jumped to the defence of Premier League stars amid mounting criticism of them for their conduct in the ongoing coronavirus crisis.
With workers all around the country being put on furlough schemes by the government, including staff at a number of football clubs, Premier League players are yet to offer to take a cut in their wages or donate some of their salary to charity.
Tottenham are the latest high-profile club to announce cuts for non-playing staff, with their chairman Daniel Levy releasing a statement on Tuesday to announce 550 workers would be hit with a 20% reduction to their pay for the next two months.
MP for the area and Spurs fan David Lammy took to Twitter on Thursday morning to state his disapproval, posting: "It's criminal that Premier League footballers haven't moved more quickly to take pay cuts and deferrals.
"And completely wrong that taxpayers are now being asked to subsidise cleaners, caterers and security guards at these clubs instead."
Lineker hit back just minutes later, however, saying: "It's not criminal. Fact is players are not training together so meetings would take rime (sp) to organise.
"I'm positive most of them will want to do something to help but don't know how, or worry about treading a lonely path. Let's give them a chance to act before we all weigh in."
Lineker appears to be in a minority of those defending footballers, with ex-Spurs manager Harry Redknapp also criticising his former club.
Speaking on the 'Arry Redknapp Podcast , he said: "I can’t believe it. Surely players should be taking a cut. This isn’t for big clubs like Tottenham.
"Tottenham are owned by Joe Lewis, one of the richest men in the world, and his club are cutting the wages of all their non-football staff by 20 per cent. I can’t believe it.
"Here is a club where the average player earns £80,000, £90,000, £100,000 a week."
