When this pandemic started a few weeks back in Europe, I read a headline from a comedian that said the outbreak would show the world the very best and very worse of humanity. With each passing day, that headline becomes more and more true.
We are very conscious that while we are constantly bemoaning been deprived of any sport that people are dying all over the world and a lack of sport is the least of a lot of peoples worries.
Nevertheless, sport can also play a very positive role in this current crisis and we see amazing examples of it every day. Football clubs all over the world have been hitting headlines for different reasons and mostly good reasons.
Celtic Football Club was one of the first clubs to make news when it donated £170K to feed frontline workers and those in need. Yesterday, the club offered itself to help in any way they could to the NHS or community.
Barcelona players just announced a 70% cut to their wages to help keep non-playing staff in employment at the Camp Nou for the next few months. Players will also donate large sums of money to medical staff working in the trenches in one of the worse hit countries in the world by Covid 19.
Barca is the first club in Spain to make this move and they are expected to be joined by Athletico Madrid and Espanyol very shortly.
Juventus players announced a 40% cut to wages which will save the club a staggering €90m in four months.
A host of English premier league clubs donated in the region of between £50k to £100k to local charities.
Teams in the English championship have players and coaches done fitness classes with their lockdown fans. Other clubs in England management and playing staff have been phoning around their elderly season ticket holders to check in with them and see if they needed anything.
The other side of the coin is that some sporting clubs or football clubs are not equipped to survive past a few weeks of a shutdown and they will struggle to come out the other side of this.
Mike Ashley hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons only last week. After the UK was told to go on lockdown the Newcastle owner kept his sporting shops open only to eventually fold under intense public pressure. The majority of Newcastle fans were outraged at the move.
Yesterday Newcastle announced that they have placed the majority of their non-playing staff on furlough leave. The government scheme allows workers to claim 80 per cent of their wages to a maximum of £2,500 per month.
Just today Spurs announced that they will cut all 550 non-playing staff wages for the next two months and that has caused widespread condemnation.
Spurs say 550 non-playing staff will take 20% pay cut for next 2 months & use govt’s furlough job retention scheme in attempt to "protect jobs".
Net worth of Spurs owner Joe Lewis: £4.3billion
Pay of chair Daniel Levy: £7m
Average players’ pay: £76k/weekhttps://t.co/XEPDzHaJyQ— Dan Roan (@danroan) March 31, 2020
Jack Grealish has landed himself in all kinds of hot water for breaking lockdown and partying at the weekend. The player has since apologised and admitted it was a daft move.
There are probably a host of other clubs that we have not mentioned and within the wider sporting world, there are non stop good signs of what a positive impact the elite sports person/club can make on society in the very worse of times.
Feel free to add any other good deeds below and we will do our best to add them to the article.
