BILLERICAY Town player-manager Jamie O’Hara believes footballers should take a 90-day pay cut to ensure clubs at all levels of the game stay afloat despite problems stemming from the coronavirus crisis.
It is feared clubs, particularly further down the Football League pyramid and involved in non-league football, could go bust due to the Covid-19 outbreak forcing the season to be suspended.
As a result, clubs are struggling for income and, speaking on talkSPORT, O’Hara backed the idea for footballers to accept a pay cut in order to ensure no clubs go by the wayside.
“I think it’s a great idea,” said O’Hara.
“I’ve been a footballer and earned a lot of money, but money is not everything. Football is everything.
“I am now working further down the scale and there are clubs that are really struggling. They need help.
“We look up to these footballers, who are icons, and it could go a long way.
“Premier League players are in a very privileged position.
“I have been in that privileged position and I flaunted it, but I always had money left over.
“This would be for 90 days and, at the end of the day, this is a situation where the football community needs to come together.
“I guarantee a lot of footballers would be very quick to say, ‘I’ll give up 20 per cent’.
“When we’re over this situation, you want to go back to seeing every single club still afloat.
“If the clubs are not afloat, we have done something wrong.”
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