‘Where are the club owners?’: Gary Neville launches strong criticism of Premier League amid coronavirus crisis

Gary Neville launched a passionate attack on the Premier League and the club owners for their silence during the coronavirus crisis, with the former Manchester United and England footballer asking “where are they?”

The Salford City part-owner believes the Premier League lost the support of the players “on day one” after attempting to make them agree to a 30 per cent pay cut without consulting the Professional Footballers’ Association before issuing a public statement, and has accused them of falling behind other industry and business leaders by not communicating their latest positions to fans, players and those staff members who depend on the sport for their livelihood.

Football in England remains on hiatus after the government announced a second three-week lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic, with the last round of fixtures taking place more than a month ago across the weekend of 7-8 March, and with so much uncertainty over how the nation will return to something close to normal life, the return of sporting events appears a long way off.

A meeting will take place between the Premier League clubs on Friday where a number of proposals will be discussed such as ending the season at the end of June if games can’t be staged, but very few announcements have come from officials or from the owners and chief executives at clubs.

“I think they’re on the backfoot anyway to be honest with you,” Neville said on Sky Sports News. “Some of the things they can’t make any decisions on because we’ve entered into three weeks’ more lockdown yesterday, and if the government extends the lockdown in three weeks’ time for another three weeks, what can the Premier League do about it?

“So there is an element here obviously of a lot of the things that are happening are out of their hands. They don’t know how the virus is going to spread, how it’s going to come under control, what the restrictions are going to be post-lockdown, so there will be a number of things that they’ll be trying to get intelligence on but that they will be struggling with.

“The walls are closing in and they’ve got off on the back foot. I don’t think they’ve communicated well throughout this process to be honest with you, I don’t believe they’ve brought us on the journey with them, we don’t know where they’re at. I actually get the feeling that they’re stuck. They thought they had the ultimate power at the Premier League and what we’ve seen over the last few weeks is that the self-interest of all the different parties and no one really having the power in this country means that everyone’s fending for their own rights.

“It should have been as one from the very beginning, they should have been looking at a compromise agreement all the way through, but they’ve lost the players - they’re now having to deal with the players individually - they’re chasing their tails and they’ve got decisions to make on certain things but some of the things are out of their hands.”

The biggest frustration for Neville has been the silence that has come from the clubs themselves, who have attempted to force the players into pay cuts only to alienate the two parties by how they went about it.

A number of clubs also announced plans to furlough non-playing staff members, only for both Tottenham and Liverpool to U-turn on their decisions, though Newcastle United have continued with furloughing and others are facing financial crisis in the coming weeks unless games resume.

“What I would criticise them most for is where are the club owners? Where are the club CEOs? Why are they not communicating to everybody in this country about what is happening?” Neville said.

“There is an absolute abyss of information lost, and we’re just speculating all the time. To me at this moment in time you see the government, whether it’s good or bad, communicating every single day. You see the other businesses and industries communicating every single day. Football’s gone quiet, they’re hiding.

“It would just be nice to hear from them to communicate the challenges they’re facing, to reassure everybody that discussions are taking place What they did a few weeks ago for instance, they tried to make players on a Friday afternoon take a 30 per cent pay cut for 12 months but they forgot to mention it to the players beforehand, to the captain's themselves. So they lost the players on day one, the distrust appeared.

“They do need the players to come back on board in the next few weeks and there will need to be some type of reduction or deferment of salaries because there’s no doubt that the health of the clubs will struggle, but I would say that in times of crisis and in times of trouble, even if you don’t know what the outcomes are going to be, you have to communicate. You can’t just go quiet. Ultimately the leaders of Manchester United, Liverpool, Tottenham, Arsenal, Chelsea, the Premier League, where are they? We’ve not heard anything from them. It’s just communication, it’s making sure you’re in touch with people, it’s what every other industry and business leader does and the Premier League have not got a grip on it and the Premier League clubs have not got a grip on it.”