On-loan Newcastle defender Danny Rose says that Premier League footballers are “keen to make something” happen with regards to COVID-19 relief efforts.
The players in the Premier League have come in for a lot of criticism in the last week due to the slow response from the world of football to play their part in the fight against COVID-19.
The players themselves took the majority of the flack due to the fact they hadn’t taken a pay cut, but Danny Rose says he is more than happy to do that.
“We’re all keen to make something happen,” Rose told BBC Radio 5 Live.
“I can only speak for myself but I would have no problems whatsoever contributing any of my wages to people who are fighting this on the front line and to people who have been affected by what’s happening at the minute.”
Yesterday, the Premier League announced an indefinite delay to the Premier League season, mentioning that all 20 clubs will ask players to take a 30% wage cut to save jobs.
The Premier League also announced they have advanced £125m to the EFL and National League, while donating £20m to the NHS.
Earlier in the day, Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson and Manchester United captain Harry Maguire had put forward initiatives. Maguire asked his team to pay 30% of their wages to Manchester hospitals, while Henderson set up a league wide relief fund.
Danny Rose mentioned he’d spoken to Henderson, saying that he feels players have their “backs against the wall”.
“We sort of feel that our backs are against the wall. Conversations were being had before people outside of football were commenting,” Rose said.
“I’ve been on the phone to Jordan Henderson and he’s working so hard to come up with something.
“It was just not needed for people who are not involved in football to tell footballers what they should do with their money. I found that so bizarre.”
This all comes in the wake of government officials and MP’s using the house of commons to call out Premier League footballers for not giving up their wages. Health minister Matt Hancock accused players of “not doing their” bit earlier this week.
Former Tottenham and Newcastle midfielder Jermaine Jenas came out in defence of the players, saying that the criticism was “an absolute joke”.
“Their hearts are in the right place – they wanted to have control over where money goes,” he said.
“Essentially, if the players take a wage cut, the beneficiaries are the clubs. Their main concern is what is happening to this money. They are happy to put money into a pot, rather than it just vanishing.
“They want to have an influence as to where this money is going. Is it going to the NHS, school meals? They want control over that. They don’t want to be dictated to by the Premier League – they don’t want to have no idea where the money’s gone.”
Personally, I’m with Jenas on this one. The players have been so unfairly criticised by people who have no idea what’s been going on behind the scenes. The Mirror reported yesterday that many players have made significant donations to help the cause, choosing not to publicise their contributions.
Until they knew the full story, the likes of Matt Hancock and other parliamentary powers should not have been criticising players. They should have aimed their criticism solely at owners who chose to take tax payers money to pay their staff when they did not need to do so.
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