Manchester City are the first Premier League club to confirm they will not furlough staff during the current coronavirus crisis.
The Blues wrote to all non-playing staff to let them know that they will continue to pay salaries as normal for the duration of the global health crisis, which has forced the suspension of football across the planet.
As well as killing thousands in the UK, the Covid-19 outbreak has also brought much of the country’s economy – including the football industry – grinding to a halt.
As a result, the government pledged to pay 80 per cent of the wages of employees whose jobs have become temporarily redundant, as a means of supporting people financially and stopping the national economy from going into a nose-dive.
Liverpool and Tottenham have come under fierce criticism after announcing that they will take advantage of the furlough scheme for some of their non-playing employees, while continuing to pay their players huge wages.
They join Newcastle, Bournemouth and Norwich in placing staff on furlough leave.
Liverpool’s move comes despite making a £42m profit last year, and spending £43m on agents’ fees.
That has brought criticism from many quarters, including former players Jamie Carragher and Stan Collymore.
City have taken the opposite tack. They held a boardroom meeting on Friday to discuss several issues, and decided not to furlough any staff.
They wrote to their 463-strong workforce to confirm the move.
Chief operating officer Omar Berrada wrote to all staff and a City spokesperson said: “We can confirm, following a decision by the chairman and board last week, that Manchester City will not be utilising the UK Government’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.
“We remain determined to protect our people, their jobs and our business whilst at the same time doing what we can to support our wider community at this most challenging time for everybody.”
