A good news story?
Posted by John Beech on January 11, 2010
I don’t suppose, if I’m honest, that this a blog you would rush to in order to read ‘good news’ stories, packed with fluffy tales of people being, erm, nice.
From Crawley Town, a club which has been through a fairly crazy time financially in the last few years, comes a story which warms the heart. Manager Steve Evans and assistant Paul Raynor have agreed to take a ‘salary holiday’ for November and December to help the club towards a debt-free future (1). Evans said “It’s not asked upon, it’s not forced upon…It’s purely a gesture back from the management team to say a big thank you to the people who have sorted the club out… I’ve sat in board meetings over the last three or four months and I’ve seen the unbelievable finances coming in from two very committed directors. As a gesture I said I’m quite happy to put my salary in the mix for a couple of months. Sitting with a coffee in the office with Paul Raynor, he agreed to do the same. The nice thing from our point of view is that we have owners at the top of the football club who’ve sorted it out in a really dignified, professional way and more importantly opened their chequebooks.“
Now we are talking the salaries of a Manager and Assistant in the Conference, not footballers in the Premier League. Such a gesture shows a committment to their club, all the more suprising in an industry where managers seem to have very little job security. All credit to them. How many others would do the same?
Well, there was Carl Heggs in the dying days of King’s Lynn (2). And the staff at Bournemouth during their lowest ebb this summer (3). Oh, and likewise at Weymouth (4). And going back a bit there was Carlton Palmer taking a pay cut of 50% at Stockport County (5). I’m sure that is certainly far from being a full list.
Come to think of it, as well as undoubtedly being a good news story with respect to the individuals concerned, it’s a pretty shameful story of the football industry as a whole, where being paid your salary is not something you can always bank on.
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[...] Ambulance when the club went into Administration (3), as did Crystal Palace fans (4). And see too A good news story? for football club staff so loyal that they were willing to take a ‘pay holiday’, where [...]