Spursex
Alert Team
So my understanding is that companies are encouraged to keep staff on the books, continue to pay them and then claim the 80% back centrally from the government furlough scheme. In other words 80% government / 20% company cashflow to attain 100% pay to the employee for 3 months. Did I interpret that wrong?
Also, what do we think THFC's 20% saving on salary for the 550 employees amounts to for one quarter? Of course every little helps, but I just can't see that it's much money coming back into the cashflow. By my maths it was one or two million less the furlough contribution back from the government. I could be wrong. I'm struggling to understand whether that justified the demotivation of 550 employees and the amount of optics created. I obviously have no intimacy with your own companies so can't have an opinion there.
What I do get is that THFC just loaded £40m into HMRC for the last 2 sets of financials we've posted. They probably have a case over other clubs to "morally" claim some back as they at least put it in. I also get at a personal level, life can be cheaper right now without travel costs, pubs, eating out, child-care etc. Had a few friends already talking about some unwritten upsides for the pandemic. Still not convinced about the 20% though.
I do sort of feel that Levy has jumped too early and might have deferred all this to next quarter. By then he might have guilted his highly paid footballers and manager to look after their amazing supporting cast of 550 folks and promised to divert it their way. Either way, it's a horrible comm again from Levy but the bigger picture stuff that you talk about should be the main agenda.
You only get the 80% up to a maximum 2,500 per employee if they are furloughed and if they are, they then cannot work and cannot get paid anything by the business.
The support is only for 3 months (it may be extended), so you cannot wait until the next quarter, it starts claiming now if you want the benefit of a whole quarter. And it's clear Levy is being forced to do it to try and mitigate the loss of ALL income.
Have a look at our balance sheet, you'll soon see the club is not stuffed with cash reserves and just 6 months of no income will from my calculations mean the cash is gone and all been used, (if it hasn't already). Fixed Overheads have a run rate of around 10-15 mill per month. Against no income.
The staff have been doing almost no work for the past 2-3 weeks, they have for the main part sitting at home. They will be doing nothing for as long as this lasts.
Losing 20% of income in this present climate when you aren't being asked to do anything is tough, but there are ways to mitigate this loss, which you've touched on.
As I said, Levy, cannot defer for a quarter.
He cannot cut players wages without the agreement of the PFA and so far as I've said I am told they're not being very accomodating. If the PFA dig their heels in, it's going to get really messy.
I don't think it was a horrible comm at all,it was blunt yes, but if he'd sugarcoated it , the media and all the pundits would have seen straight through it - that would have made him look a complete fool.
I think he was absolutely right to get the media and some sections of the fans to see the reality of what no free cash in the bank will do to the transfer market, so the silly talk of he'd have been reading about what might/could/should happen has been well and truly busted by him, which as I've been saying since this blew up, I cannot argue with - someone had to burst these silly expectations the media keeps saying can/will happen.
The chances of us moving players on for what they sit in our balance sheet at looks a big ask, so our balance sheet in respect of intangible assets as will others could be crushed, by the end of the year.
The PL is now running scared, if it cannot restart the league in May, I'm told that all hope of the second media payment(s) will disappear with it and almost certainly any payments from the PL (the PL holds very little in reserve as almost everything is distributed every year).
I'm sorry, I know it's fashionable to kick Levy, but prudence and perhaps even survival is the only things we should be focusing on now - as there is clearly 6-10 PL clubs who will probably go bust if things don't improve quickly; these clubs run on massive debt and have no cash in the bank.
The PL could well be on the verge of shedding 6-10 clubs and propping up the Championship as well.
The loss in sponsorship and commercial revenues as well as no European football could cost the club £150 mill in revenues (or more!). If I'm right we'll be reporting a huge loss for this financial year.
These are very tough decisions to make.
Last edited: