Thread by @sportingintel

There's been a lot of heat and fury around football, wages, morals, obligations, leadership & responsibility in recent days. IMO, lots of people, not least players, and the PL, do want to do the right thing. But reality is, it's complex. A thread.

1/n

To understand the issues (which are divisive and polarising), we need to see that each 'stakeholder' (club, fan, player, broadcaster, owner, govt etc) is approaching this from a unique perspective, and each have valid (to them) concerns.

2/n

PL clubs are basically now dealing with 2 realistic scenarios, and only 2. One is finishing the season behind closed doors, at some point, maybe in by late summer / autumn. The other is annulment. Virtually no-one thinks 'normal' end with fans viable.

3/n

Using these 2 scenarios, best case is finishing behind closed doors, *relatively* minor financial hit, largely but not wholly covered by 10% pay cut (annual) to players (deferred or not still in discussion). Medium-long term this will seem like bliss.

4/n

The other scenario is season annulled, which means £762m repayment (or large chunk thereof) to be rebated to domestic broadcasters (Sky/BT, c.£480m) and overseas (c.£282m).

5/n

What does a "rebate" scenario look like for each of the current 20 clubs? These are modelled results and are inherently imperfect, eg clubs may move up and down if season played. But this is PL TV cash situation if played to end VS annulled.

6/n

And it's THIS SCENARIO which is really worrying everyone in the PL, a situation where games just don't happen and a huge rebate due to Sky/BT and all international broadcasters. Which is where the putative figure of 30% Premier League wage cuts comes in.

7/n

There is some simplification of numbers here, so bear with me. But PL clubs collectively will pay wages in 2019-20 of *around* £3bn, perhaps £100m or so higher. And of that *roughly*, ALL players, all ages, inclusive of bonuses and benefits, will get c.£2.2bn

If the season is annulled and players take a 30% cut, then the *roughly* £700m saved goes a long way to patching the hole of the monies due to be reimbursed to the TV companies. But, of course, it's way, way more complex than that.

n/9

What ends of happening, because, erm, people are human & therefore fallible and capable of fucking stuff up, is a whole load of mixed messaging and competing agendas & lack of common sense, and NOISE. With hypothetical situations making it all worse.

n/10

And the reality is many / most players are willing and able to help. Owners: some are and some aren't. The PFA ... want to assist their members but should have taken better control, sooner.

n/11

And, y'know, this is *just* football, a really financially insignificant industry where you local Tesco EXTRA will turn over more than your local PL club, annually. But also a *really* important one, emotionally, culturally, in our societies.

n/12

What I'm saying is that lots of people in football (players / fans / governing bodies, PFA, some but not all owners) want to do the "right" thing, & largely but not wholly share a view on what that is. But like everything, it's not simple.

n/13

And if you're not as bored of this thread as I am by now, well done. I maintain the Govt has *really* fucked up the handling of coronavirus in many ways. But. Even doing this thread I realise ... it's impossible in such a catastrophe NOT to fuck up every day

Come for the threads that lull you to sleep if you're an insomniac.

Stay for the threads that lull you to sleep if you're an insomniac.

Last thing. 92 PL games remaining this season and (I think) 46 to be shown live on TV.

If season played behind closed doors, why not show all 92 on TV, charge somebody (BBC?) to show 46 not currently allotted to TV? All proceeds NHS.

Pls RT. Night

With footballers' pay *still* a thing, basic avg PL pay in 2019-20 is just under £3.2m, BUT varies hugely between clubs, between ages and positions. This graphic is from page 31 of the 2019 GSSS, which has loads of info, free here globalsportssalaries.com

Pay also (obviously) differs within squads. A while back did some work for a club looking to model wages in Europe's Big 20 clubs, where the A list was clubs 1-10 and the B list was 11-20. Here's how basic split for players 1-24 in those squads, 1 = best paid

Takeaway from table in last tweet: by the time you’re at the 25th best paid player in pretty much any squad, that player could be earning as little as a 20th of his best-paid team-mate.