Former Football League club owner Simon Jordan has made a bleak prediction that could worry Nottingham Forest, believing that up to 80 per cent of clubs in England could go out of business as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
And the former Crystal Palace chief and outspoken talkSPORT regular says players who don’t want to take pay cuts in the current climate are a ‘disgrace’.
Reds' star Joao Carvalho says he would be willing to take a pay cut to help the club out during the coronavirus crisis.
Forest have already placed some non-playing staff on furlough leave under the Government's Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.
Jordan, never one to mince his words, fears the end is near for a number of teams with the global health crisis having a crippling effect on football’s finances.
“Not only are we facing a challenge in terms of generating revenue from spectators, we are talking about the sustainability of our national sport,” he said on talkSPORT’s Final Word.
“And that leads me on to the conclusion that, if my theory is in some respects bordering on half-correct, then I think 70 to 80 per cent of clubs in this country could very easily go bust.
“We could have a real meltdown.
“They would come back as different guys. But as they sit today, because of the model of football, because of the way it’s been allowed to get out of control and because of the climate we’ve got now, in that players are not involved themselves in any kind of solution, that’s the way it is.”
The former Crystal Palace owner also took aim at Manchester United legend Roy Keane, who recently stated his belief that players shouldn’t feel obligated to accept pay cuts during the crisis.
Mesut Ozil has recently been widely criticised for being one of the few Arsenal players to reject a reduction to his £350,000-a-week salary amid the ongoing pandemic.
“It’s a disgrace that players don’t want to take pay cuts,” added Jordan. “Of course owners have got to take pain. Of course the obligation of running football clubs involves you having to meet circumstances.
“But when you run into a territory of accepting situations then there has to be a scenario where there has to be a mutual benefit and solution to problems.
“The fact that Luddites like Roy Keane come out and say, ‘players haven’t got to do anything’, just evolves and crystallises the ignorance.”
