Club Furlough Staff (Now Reversed)

Something I’m not sure they’ve even considered is Nike. Our deal with them is largely dependent on sales, well the profit hunting FSG have now damaged our reputation, something that isn’t going to encourage people to be buying next seasons kits...I know I’m only one person but I won’t be helping to line their pockets by buying it, now take into account all the other supporters in the U.K. and that’s a lot of money lost.

So not only is it the owners bringing a bad look to the club with this, but they are also reducing their own profit in the long term too. They’ve hoped for a quick short term gain but they’ve done more harm than I think they could possibly have even anticipated.

If they want to know what it’s like to be on the wrong side of the supporters of this club, then they only need to think back to the previous ownership. It’s obviously not the same situation, but it should serve as a reminder for them.

Still have my Standards Corrupted shirt.

Are the same people talking about taxpayers money the same people on here who were writing off people committing benefit fraud.

Are the same people talking about taxpayers money the same people on here who were writing off people committing benefit fraud.

Example of me doing that?

Example of me doing that?

No not you but some have.

Enough people will still buy the kit even after this that Nike won't care. Unless a significant number worldwide actually boycott it, they probably won't even notice.

My point isn’t about Nike caring, my point was that it will impact the amount of profit the club can make because our deal with Nike is largely sales based.

Are the same people talking about taxpayers money the same people on here who were writing off people committing benefit fraud.

All your posts in this topic that I have seen, seems as though you are trying to justify the decision and saying about other people’s views regarding things in the past.

What do you actually think about it? Not interested about you trying to remind people of anything, which you have done for a couple of different scenarios now, just like to know your personal view on the decision because you seem to be showing support for it whilst not saying what you think.

My point isn’t about Nike caring, my point was that it will impact the amount of profit the club can make because our deal with Nike is largely sales based.

How will overseas shirt sales impact uk based shirt sales..?

My point isn’t about Nike caring, my point was that it will impact the amount of profit the club can make because our deal with Nike is largely sales based.

It might impact sales in the short term, but outside of the UK I would think most Liverpool fans don't care or even know about the furloughing. Inside of the UK, I think if the club reverses this decision soon then it'll affect sales for less time than it would if they kept going.

It might impact sales in the short term, but outside of the UK I would think most Liverpool fans don't care or even know about the furloughing. Inside of the UK, I think if the club reverses this decision soon then it'll affect sales for less time than it would if they kept going.

How will overseas shirt sales impact uk based shirt sales..?

Have you seriously just asked that? I’ve not mentioned overseas, I specifically mentioned the U.K side of it given that you know, that’s where the decision is taking place! No mention of overseas at all so I don’t know why you’ve even asked such a daft question Shabs.

Pissed off supporters in the UK leads to less shirt sales leads to FSG not making as much as they could have done.

It’s not rocket science what I was saying. It was quite clear I was making the point that they could get less profit from the U.K....where the club actually is, as a result. I’m fully aware in the grand scheme of things it’s not going to impact sales worldwide, but given it’s a U.K. team and a decision that is in the U.K. I think the U.K. opinion matters a great deal.

It might impact sales in the short term, but outside of the UK I would think most Liverpool fans don't care or even know about the furloughing.

Two points

I think a point worth considering is how much disposable cash will people have after this? Sales of shirts will be impacted

And if you dont care about the furlough issue you dont get the core values of this club and the city and you would be better off supporting another club

Have you seriously just asked that? I’ve not mentioned overseas, I specifically mentioned the U.K side of it given that you know, that’s where the decision is taking place! No mention of overseas at all so I don’t know why you’ve even asked such a daft question Shabs.

Pissed off supporters in the UK leads to less shirt sales leads to FSG not making as much as they could have done.

It’s not rocket science what I was saying. It was quite clear I was making the point that they could get less profit from the U.K....where the club actually is, as a result. I’m fully aware in the grand scheme of things it’s not going to impact sales worldwide, but given it’s a U.K. team and a decision that is in the U.K. I think the U.K. opinion matters a great deal.

It’s not a daft question though is it..? I’m sure whatever the shortfall in UK shirt sales Nike & the club will cover those cost abroad..

I agree of the impact directly at home.

It’s not a daft question though is it..? I’m sure whatever the shortfall in UK shirt sales Nike & the club will cover those cost abroad..

I agree of the impact directly at home.

It is a daft question, a f**king incredibly daft question because I wasn’t talking about overseas!! I was specifically talking about the f**king United Kingdom which I specifically even wrote!!!

It’s not a case of anyone covering costs abroad or anything like that. My point which I made quite clear is that the owners care a lot about profit, as a result of this decision they now stand to lose some of the profit in which they would have made.

It’s really not that difficult to understand what I was saying, I’ve made it perfectly clear. Nothing to do with any impact on Nike, nothing to do with anything overseas, just purely the sum of profit that would have come from the U.K.

Understand? Because after about 4 posts making it pretty god damn clear, I can’t make it any clearer what I was saying!! Couldn’t give a toss about overseas because I wasn’t talking about overseas! If I was wanting to factor in overseas then I would have said about overseas and if I had then it would have been completely irrelevant to this pissing topic about a decision in the U.K. that is for the people in the U.K.!!!

It wasn’t even a massive point I was making, it was just something related to the owners greed for profit, there was nothing else to say about it. It was a minor point to their decision I was wondering if they’d have considered.

Good grief.

And if you dont care about the furlough issue you dont get the core values of this club and the city and you would be better off supporting another club

Sales figures for apparel are bolstered by band wagon jumpers and glory hunters. I mean part of the Nike deal was the idea that well known Nike athletes (LeBron James) would market our gear to "new" markets and fans. I think that point that many of the people buying the gear won't care about the furlough is probably spot on. Surely a reason they weren't worried about global backlash when they made the furlough decision.

https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/liverpool-furlough-coronavirus-premier-league-criticism-this-means-more-a9448826.html

This Means More is exactly why Liverpool can’t escape criticism for furloughing staff in coronavirus lockdown

European champions have screamed about its socialist roots at every opportunity, but have betrayed it by furloughing staff it can still afford to pay

Melissa ReddySenior Football Correspondent @MelissaReddy_

In aiming to frame why Liverpool’s decision to turn to the government’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme rankled so much, a supporter provided the perfect analogy on Twitter.

“It’s like going to the foodbank when you can still comfortably afford to go the supermarket and buy meals.”

That’s it. That’s the tweet. That’s the crux of why this feels wrong and the widespread criticism has been right.

The world’s seventh richest football club, who increased turnover to £533m and made a pre-tax profit of £42m in 2018-19, have furloughed around 200 non-playing staff unable to work during the coronavirus crisis. The government will fulfil 80 per cent of their usual wage, up to £2,500 a month, with Liverpool supplementing the rest.

The most any Premier League side is estimated to save from such an action is £1.3m per month. But what has been the moral cost of an organisation still fully capable of paying those employees rushing to use a policy whose support may not arrive quickly enough to keep thousands of small businesses alive?


It’s important to remember that this is not just any organisation either. It is an institution, responsible to and representative of its community, that has so forcefully marketed its socialist roots.

Bill Shankly is quoted at every opportunity. You’ll Never Walk Alone is the anthem and eternal sign off. ‘This Means More’ has been trumpeted as a slogan and is splashed across the tunnel at Anfield.

There is rightly an overflow of pride in the current manager Jürgen Klopp, “who believes in the welfare state,” being the empathetic, guffawing genius behind Liverpool FC’s restoration as a domestic and continental powerhouse.

In October, the club’s CEO Peter Moore was asked what differentiates the club in the football sphere. “We had this amazing historical figure: Bill Shankly, a Scottish socialist who built the foundation,” he responded to Spanish publication El Pais.


“Even today, when we talk about business, we ask ourselves: “What would Shankly do? What would Bill say in this situation?”

“He was a true socialist who believed that football consisted of working together. In the marketing department we got together and said: ‘Let's put this into words.’

“The bottom line was that Liverpool's essential idea is that ‘this means more’. More than win or lose. More than going to football, getting together in the pub and going home.

“Shankly once said: ‘I was made for Liverpool and Liverpool was made for me.’ Klopp can say the exact same thing.

“He fully understands the socialist elements that permeate the club and the city, the exciting challenges and what the club means to many people who have not had a chance to have anything better in life than their love for the club. For a time the symbol of the city was the Beatles. Now it is football.”

Jürgen Klopp has backed Liverpool to bounce back after Champions League defeat
Liverpool cannot sing from this sheet only to betray it and expect no blow back. They cannot chorus love and belonging and expect those who feel those ties to still whistle along now.

Furloughing staff was not a decision taken at Melwood, but one strategised between the offices in Chapel Street, Bloomsbury and Boston.

At the training complex, the reaction to the global pandemic has been as per Klopp’s directive that “the first thing you have to do is be generous: generous with words, generous with feelings and generous with money of course as well. That’s what we do, that’s clear, wherever we can help we try to help, 100 per cent.”

The players contributed £40,000 to local foodbanks while Andy Robertson has also helped keep six in Glasgow and surrounding areas in operation.

The national committee fighting against coronavirus in Senegal was boosted by £41,000 from Sadio Mane.


Some on Liverpool’s roster have privately made “substantial donations” to Alder Hey and Liverpool Women’s Hospital, while captain Jordan Henderson has been co-ordinating with fellow Premier League skippers to organise a crisis fund for the NHS.

Klopp, his backroom team, senior Melwood executives and the players’ committee have been in discussions with owners Fenway Sports Group since elite football was suspended in England on 13 March.

They have been in agreement to contribute and make financial sacrifices for the greater good of all staff and society, working through exactly how that can be fairly put into effect and have maximum impact for where funds are needed most.

As such, Liverpool’s furlough announcement on Saturday not only felt unnecessary and hasty, but also unfairly made the squad a magnet for criticism.

It undercut the individual and collective efforts of the players to help, reducing them to “greedy bas**rds” in the socialverse and further arming the government's scapegoating of them.

So much of what the European champions have built since Klopp’s arrival has been through a strong sense of unity. There is a close bond between the core triumvirate of the manager, sporting director Michael Edwards and FSG president Mike Gordon. Every department from recruitment to performance analysis through to conditioning are aligned under the banner ‘everyone is responsible for everything.’

Staff who have worked at Melwood for over a decade say they’ve never known a tighter group or greater harmony throughout the facility. Those who usually report to the West Derby headquarters have been missing the company of their co-workers and the players so much that there has been a WhatsApp group created for all employees, regular FaceTime calls as well as yoga sessions and such via Zoom.

That togetherness, a foundation for record-breaking form, has also translated to a reawakened fanbase during Klopp’s tenure.

Liverpool have felt like an all-encompassing force: a world-class manager guiding a special team that have been electrified by the supporters and advanced by stellar off-pitch organisation.

The club’s decision to furlough staff so soon and the acerbic reaction it has received is in opposition to the above. The biggest beating Liverpool have taken this season has been by their own hands.

It is an uncertain world and football is not immune from the ruinous effects of Covid-19. There are crazy conundrums and no easy answers. No-one should pretend that matters, even the smallest ones, are not complex.

There is still right and wrong. Liverpool are not perfect and neither are FSG, but they are better than this. They have to be.

Because, as they’ve plastered to us, this means more.

Sales figures for apparel are bolstered by band wagon jumpers and glory hunters. I mean part of the Nike deal was the idea that well known Nike athletes (LeBron James) would market our gear to "new" markets and fans. I think that point that many of the people buying the gear won't care about the furlough is probably spot on. Surely a reason they weren't worried about global backlash when they made the furlough decision.

Not the point I'm making but ok

It shouldn't be about a backlash anyway.. it should be about doing the right thing that suits the fundamentals of our club and our city

I'm not going on anyway, I've made my point.. I'm just sad that people dont get that or dont care about those aspects and personally wish they weren't associated with the club

https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/liverpool-furlough-coronavirus-premier-league-criticism-this-means-more-a9448826.html

This Means More is exactly why Liverpool can’t escape criticism for furloughing staff in coronavirus lockdown

European champions have screamed about its socialist roots at every opportunity, but have betrayed it by furloughing staff it can still afford to pay

Melissa ReddySenior Football Correspondent @MelissaReddy_

In aiming to frame why Liverpool’s decision to turn to the government’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme rankled so much, a supporter provided the perfect analogy on Twitter.

“It’s like going to the foodbank when you can still comfortably afford to go the supermarket and buy meals.”

That’s it. That’s the tweet. That’s the crux of why this feels wrong and the widespread criticism has been right.

The world’s seventh richest football club, who increased turnover to £533m and made a pre-tax profit of £42m in 2018-19, have furloughed around 200 non-playing staff unable to work during the coronavirus crisis. The government will fulfil 80 per cent of their usual wage, up to £2,500 a month, with Liverpool supplementing the rest.

The most any Premier League side is estimated to save from such an action is £1.3m per month. But what has been the moral cost of an organisation still fully capable of paying those employees rushing to use a policy whose support may not arrive quickly enough to keep thousands of small businesses alive?


It’s important to remember that this is not just any organisation either. It is an institution, responsible to and representative of its community, that has so forcefully marketed its socialist roots.

Bill Shankly is quoted at every opportunity. You’ll Never Walk Alone is the anthem and eternal sign off. ‘This Means More’ has been trumpeted as a slogan and is splashed across the tunnel at Anfield.

There is rightly an overflow of pride in the current manager Jürgen Klopp, “who believes in the welfare state,” being the empathetic, guffawing genius behind Liverpool FC’s restoration as a domestic and continental powerhouse.

In October, the club’s CEO Peter Moore was asked what differentiates the club in the football sphere. “We had this amazing historical figure: Bill Shankly, a Scottish socialist who built the foundation,” he responded to Spanish publication El Pais.


“Even today, when we talk about business, we ask ourselves: “What would Shankly do? What would Bill say in this situation?”

“He was a true socialist who believed that football consisted of working together. In the marketing department we got together and said: ‘Let's put this into words.’

“The bottom line was that Liverpool's essential idea is that ‘this means more’. More than win or lose. More than going to football, getting together in the pub and going home.

“Shankly once said: ‘I was made for Liverpool and Liverpool was made for me.’ Klopp can say the exact same thing.

“He fully understands the socialist elements that permeate the club and the city, the exciting challenges and what the club means to many people who have not had a chance to have anything better in life than their love for the club. For a time the symbol of the city was the Beatles. Now it is football.”

Jürgen Klopp has backed Liverpool to bounce back after Champions League defeat
Liverpool cannot sing from this sheet only to betray it and expect no blow back. They cannot chorus love and belonging and expect those who feel those ties to still whistle along now.

Furloughing staff was not a decision taken at Melwood, but one strategised between the offices in Chapel Street, Bloomsbury and Boston.

At the training complex, the reaction to the global pandemic has been as per Klopp’s directive that “the first thing you have to do is be generous: generous with words, generous with feelings and generous with money of course as well. That’s what we do, that’s clear, wherever we can help we try to help, 100 per cent.”

The players contributed £40,000 to local foodbanks while Andy Robertson has also helped keep six in Glasgow and surrounding areas in operation.

The national committee fighting against coronavirus in Senegal was boosted by £41,000 from Sadio Mane.


Some on Liverpool’s roster have privately made “substantial donations” to Alder Hey and Liverpool Women’s Hospital, while captain Jordan Henderson has been co-ordinating with fellow Premier League skippers to organise a crisis fund for the NHS.

Klopp, his backroom team, senior Melwood executives and the players’ committee have been in discussions with owners Fenway Sports Group since elite football was suspended in England on 13 March.

They have been in agreement to contribute and make financial sacrifices for the greater good of all staff and society, working through exactly how that can be fairly put into effect and have maximum impact for where funds are needed most.

As such, Liverpool’s furlough announcement on Saturday not only felt unnecessary and hasty, but also unfairly made the squad a magnet for criticism.

It undercut the individual and collective efforts of the players to help, reducing them to “greedy bas**rds” in the socialverse and further arming the government's scapegoating of them.

So much of what the European champions have built since Klopp’s arrival has been through a strong sense of unity. There is a close bond between the core triumvirate of the manager, sporting director Michael Edwards and FSG president Mike Gordon. Every department from recruitment to performance analysis through to conditioning are aligned under the banner ‘everyone is responsible for everything.’

Staff who have worked at Melwood for over a decade say they’ve never known a tighter group or greater harmony throughout the facility. Those who usually report to the West Derby headquarters have been missing the company of their co-workers and the players so much that there has been a WhatsApp group created for all employees, regular FaceTime calls as well as yoga sessions and such via Zoom.

That togetherness, a foundation for record-breaking form, has also translated to a reawakened fanbase during Klopp’s tenure.

Liverpool have felt like an all-encompassing force: a world-class manager guiding a special team that have been electrified by the supporters and advanced by stellar off-pitch organisation.

The club’s decision to furlough staff so soon and the acerbic reaction it has received is in opposition to the above. The biggest beating Liverpool have taken this season has been by their own hands.

It is an uncertain world and football is not immune from the ruinous effects of Covid-19. There are crazy conundrums and no easy answers. No-one should pretend that matters, even the smallest ones, are not complex.

There is still right and wrong. Liverpool are not perfect and neither are FSG, but they are better than this. They have to be.

Because, as they’ve plastered to us, this means more.

She's absolutely spot on

Supporters who are ok with this should be ashamed

It is a daft question, a f**king incredibly daft question because I wasn’t talking about overseas!! I was specifically talking about the f**king United Kingdom which I specifically even wrote!!!

It’s not a case of anyone covering costs abroad or anything like that. My point which I made quite clear is that the owners care a lot about profit, as a result of this decision they now stand to lose some of the profit in which they would have made.

It’s really not that difficult to understand what I was saying, I’ve made it perfectly clear. Nothing to do with any impact on Nike, nothing to do with anything overseas, just purely the sum of profit that would have come from the U.K.

Understand? Because after about 4 posts making it pretty god damn clear, I can’t make it any clearer what I was saying!! Couldn’t give a toss about overseas because I wasn’t talking about overseas! If I was wanting to factor in overseas then I would have said about overseas and if I had then it would have been completely irrelevant to this pissing topic about a decision in the U.K. that is for the people in the U.K.!!!

It wasn’t even a massive point I was making, it was just something related to the owners greed for profit, there was nothing else to say about it. It was a minor point to their decision I was wondering if they’d have considered.

Good grief.

& what I’m saying if you read correctly is that any loss in the UK profits could be made up abroad.. it’s that simple...

Jeez.. 🙄

No the club pays them 80% of their normal wages capped at £2500 per month. The employer is then reimbursed by the government, in theory?
That assuming they are all on PAYE.

No, the club would pay !00% wages as normal.  The club can then reclaim 80% back from the govt. under furlough once the system is finalised.

& what I’m saying if you read correctly is that any loss in the UK profits could be made up abroad.. it’s that simple...

Jeez.. 🙄

Then why were you quoting me and saying it to me and questioning my post about overseas when it’s not in relation to what I was saying for crying out loud?! Not once, but twice.

Then why were you quoting me and saying it to me and questioning my post about overseas when it’s not in relation to what I was saying for crying out loud?! Not once, but twice.

I’ve quoted you twice because any impact is sales lost at home Nike/FSG can make up that shortfall abroad, both are related. If you fail too see that then I can’t help you..

All your posts in this topic that I have seen, seems as though you are trying to justify the decision and saying about other people’s views regarding things in the past.

What do you actually think about it? Not interested about you trying to remind people of anything, which you have done for a couple of different scenarios now, just like to know your personal view on the decision because you seem to be showing support for it whilst not saying what you think.

Don't share the sense of morale outrage as others do. For about 5 or 6 million over 3 months it just seems rather pointless exercise to Furlough the staff. Just not really surprised that it has happened as football is essentially a business and fans are just another income stream. Morals left the building a long time ago. Perhaps I am a bit too cynical these days to get as worked up about these things. Nothing surprises me anymore. Guess I don't care as deeply as I used to or others do any more. Does paying someone 200 grand a week or buying someone for 70 million for a player fit in with a socialist ethos, probably not. Come the new Nike shirt I can guarantee you that Furlough will be the last thing on a lot of fans mind or lifting the premiership trophy. Not saying that's right or wrong. Just saying that's the reality of it all.

I fail to see why you are singling out Nike? All commercial sponsorship arrangements, and other such ventures are and will be subject to performance / exposure clauses, from small to large. This is a financial tsunami, and not just for football. If it all ends in two months time its going to take five years to recover from this, if we are fortunate.
If it goes on for another two months after that we will be at financial, and therefore social Armageddon, and who knows after that??
Whether I like it or not, what LFC have done to their non playing staff is immaterial, in fact its a storm in a teacup at this point.

Two Christmases last I listened to a Royal Institution lecture on You Tube entitled (Are we ready for the next pandemic) and this precise scenario was predicted with remarkable accuracy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=en06PYwvpbI

I also listened to Bill Gates on a TED talk on the same subject, and that was back in 2014.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Af6b_wyiwI

The surprising thing is that our esteemed politicians have done F@CK all about it. No contingency planning, no nothing, and all we are getting is click bait daily on television, literally blowing sunshine up our collective rear ends!

Football is merely part of the fallout at this point, a mere peccadillo in the great big scheme of things.
There are fare greater issues facing us at this moment, than who and why LFC are laying off staff.
Listen to Bill Gates he's a wise man yes / no??

And as for Nikes performance right now they are not even on my radar, truth.
Buckle up folks is gonna be a bumpy ride.

Don't share the sense of morale outrage as others do. For about 5 or 6 million over 3 months it just seems rather pointless exercise to Furlough the staff. Just not really surprised that it has happened as football is essentially a business and fans are just another income stream. Morals left the building a long time ago. Perhaps I am a bit too cynical these days to get as worked up about these things. Nothing surprises me anymore. Guess I don't care as deeply as I used to or others do any more. Does paying someone 200 grand a week or buying someone for 70 million for a player fit in with a socialist ethos, probably not. Come the new Nike shirt I can guarantee you that Furlough will be the last thing on a lot of fans mind or lifting the premiership trophy. Not saying that's right or wrong. Just saying that's the reality of it all.

Well said that person, won yourself a crate of beer for that. (Apocalypse Now)

I’ve quoted you twice because any impact is sales lost at home Nike/FSG can make up that shortfall abroad, both are related. If you fail too see that then I can’t help you..

It’s not related because as I have made perfectly clear, I was purely talking about the U.K.

Don't share the sense of morale outrage as others do. For about 5 or 6 million over 3 months it just seems rather pointless exercise to Furlough the staff. Just not really surprised that it has happened as football is essentially a business and fans are just another income stream. Morals left the building a long time ago. Perhaps I am a bit too cynical these days to get as worked up about these things. Nothing surprises me anymore. Guess I don't care as deeply as I used to or others do any more. Does paying someone 200 grand a week or buying someone for 70 million for a player fit in with a socialist ethos, probably not. Come the new Nike shirt I can guarantee you that Furlough will be the last thing on a lot of fans mind or lifting the premiership trophy. Not saying that's right or wrong. Just saying that's the reality of it all.

Fair enough mate, I was genuinely interested as to what your thoughts were on it as I don’t think you’d actually said so ta for that.

I fail to see why you are singling out Nike?

It was one little thought that came to me because Nike is a new thing for the club next season and a shirt deal that the main benefit relies upon sales. Not a case of singling it out at all.

F***ing hell wish I hadn’t even said anything now, knowing that people clearly couldn’t understand a simple point and want to make a mountain out of it.