To Furlough or not to Furlough that is the Q

[David]

On 4/25/2020 at 9:37 PM, weeyin said:

It doesn't mean the story came from the club, though. Sadly, the days of journalists only publishing an article when they have 2 independently confirmed sources are long gone; especially on the internet.

Onthefringes has consistently proved to be a much more reliable source.

You could be right. This particular piece came from The Athletic, and they're usually a lot more thorough and honest than our bog-standard red-top journo.

[Toxteth O'Grady]

https://www.motherwellfc.co.uk/2020/04/30/a-further-update-from-the-chairman/

Quote

A FURTHER UPDATE FROM THE CHAIRMAN

13:17

I wanted to provide you all with a further update on what we are doing as a club to manage through the crisis and to highlight the exceptional work in the local community our supporters have been carrying out.

Thanks to the sterling efforts of our Community Trust, and funding from key external partners, we were able to deliver over £5,000 worth of food to people who need it most in our local area. Our fans volunteered their time and effort, once again showing that we pull together and support each other in the moments of greatest need.

Our fundraising efforts for the Community Trust, as well as the vitally-important local suicide intervention charity Chris’s House, also continue. You’ve donated close to £10,000 already in such a short space of time as we try and reach our target of £13,742 and I urge anyone who can make any contribution at all to do so to support very important causes.

Our season ticket sales continue to move apace. We are fast approaching 1,500 purchases after just over three weeks, with fans continuing to demonstrate their commitment to the club in uncertain times. This compares to the 327 season tickets that were sold after three weeks last year. Our message remains the same – please buy if you can afford to, but only if you can.

Unfortunately, we are still without the clarity we are all seeking on when we may resume playing football. Our view is that we have to plan for a long delay, but hope and be ready for a shorter one.

The board continues to work to best safeguard the club’s finances and to plan for all potential scenarios. The vast majority of our staff and our playing squad are furloughed as we make use of the government’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and this makes a significant difference to our financial stability.

Some core staff have been retained to continue the club’s ongoing operations and to help plan for what comes next.

All that is left is to wish you, your family and your friends continued good health during these unprecedented times. We all know how hard this is. And we all know that the only way we will get through it well is by staying strong and in touch with one another like this.

Our club is a family, like never before.

Jim McMahon
Chairman

 

[Yorkyred]

7 minutes ago, Toxteth O'Grady said:

https://www.motherwellfc.co.uk/2020/04/30/a-further-update-from-the-chairman/

 

Ok I guess the information that many were looking for, I feel it’s the right move. Good to see the continued support shown with the substantial increase in season ticket sales, not sure however that we will end up with a huge increase on this season and probably just many people showing support by committing early.

[superward]

Seems sensible to me too. 

Re players fitness. Giving them plans before going on furlough,  a couple of staff being able to keep tabs somehow remotely to an extent (I.e. strava), use of Andy Boles new online Match Ready Fitness fitness app (which is nothing to do with the club) which he launched and covers all levels of player, as well as some trust in the player themselves should hopefully see us through ok.

[David]

Seems the lad who penned the piece for The Athletic wasn't all that wrong then. 

[Kmcalpin]

According to Martin Lewis an employer can ask employees to undertake training but not work, whilst furloughed. 

[0Neils40yarder]

Good to have a bit of clarity on where the club stands

[weeyin]

2 hours ago, Kmcalpin said:

According to Martin Lewis an employer can ask employees to undertake training but not work, whilst furloughed. 

I would imagine sports are a bit of grey area in that respect where training is 95% of the job.

[C&A not the shop]

Good that so much of our squad is out contract in the summer, gives them plenty motivation to stay fit as there will be a lot of players looking for clubs whenever next season starts.

In saying that they'll want to stay fit regardless, what else are they going to be doing.....

Seems the club have been sensible here and I think they've done the right thing.

[wellwell91]

Reading an article today which was suggesting that if a club takes advantage of deferring their tax to HMRC then they will not be able to purchase players until they have settled what they owe HMRC. Don’t think it will effect us as I very much doubt we’ll be paying any Xfer fees but it may effect others. It stated that HMRC would be aggressively enforcing this rule.

Agree totally with their stance by the way 

[santheman]

56 minutes ago, wellwell91 said:

Reading an article today which was suggesting that if a club takes advantage of deferring their tax to HMRC then they will not be able to purchase players until they have settled what they owe HMRC. Don’t think it will effect us as I very much doubt we’ll be paying any Xfer fees but it may effect others. It stated that HMRC would be aggressively enforcing this rule.

Agree totally with their stance by the way 

Would Mark O’Hara not be subject to a transfer fee if we sign him?

[weeyin]

1 hour ago, santheman said:

Would Mark O’Hara not be subject to a transfer fee if we sign him?

I could be misremembering, but I thought one of the papers said Peterborough were willing to let him go on a free.

Regardless - I think we should pay HMRC anyway. No point in messing (even legitimately) with the tax man.

[santheman]

53 minutes ago, weeyin said:

I could be misremembering, but I thought one of the papers said Peterborough were willing to let him go on a free.

Regardless - I think we should pay HMRC anyway. No point in messing (even legitimately) with the tax man.

Rangers found that out the hard way

[Ballso]

There’s two different parts to this:

Furlough - a scheme offered by the Government to pay 80% of wages while unable to trade. 

PAYE - HMRC are offering companies the opportunity to delay payment of their tax for a period. 

The report I read said that it would be the latter that may cause issues for clubs looking to pay a transfer fee. I don’t think anything has come out to say we’ve asked for a tax payment holiday. 

[wellwell91]

20 minutes ago, Ballso said:

There’s two different parts to this:

Furlough - a scheme offered by the Government to pay 80% of wages while unable to trade. 

PAYE - HMRC are offering companies the opportunity to delay payment of their tax for a period. 

The report I read said that it would be the latter that may cause issues for clubs looking to pay a transfer fee. I don’t think anything has come out to say we’ve asked for a tax payment holiday. 

Think there is a 3 part to this

Teams who have asked players to defer/take wage cuts ……… Hearts are a prime example of this 

[Big Stall]

21 hours ago, Kmcalpin said:

According to Martin Lewis an employer can ask employees to undertake training but not work, whilst furloughed. 

 

 

The guys that we (company I work for) have furloughed, have been encouraged to undertake training tasks and personal development. We can't force them and we can't have them doing chargeable work but we can and do keep in touch. I would expect having the players keep themselves fit and then having regular discussions with the coaches is entirely fine as per the rules of furlough.

[weeyin]

Training is a football player's job, though. In a busy Sat - Wed - Sat, they might play football for 4.5 hours. The rest of their job is training. That's completely different from somebody who works in a office or on a shop floor and spends a few hours a year in training.

I'm not saying that should be the case, but I can easily imagine the Government deciding that is the case. Especially the current mob.

[dennyc]

As  Weeyin says footballers and many sportsmen will spend a greater proportion of their week training than other profession. But every job will likely have an element of training, self development . Health and Safety awareness will also come under that heading. Distance learning as well to gain qualifications to assist promotion.So I guess the issue would be where to draw the line and how to measure it before it’s ruled too much for a scheme like this.

If the Government were going to exclude sport from the Furlough Scheme I would have thought Hancock would have taken action when he was ranting about footballers wages and EPL Clubs in particular. He backed off then but I think if he could have acted then he would have. At least one member of his party, and some media,  put him under extreme pressure to do so. In the end clubs such as Liverpool withdrew voluntarily. 

But if Motherwell have provided training plans and receive updates from time to time, then they will have checked it out thoroughly before doing so. Hopefully from the Government as well as Martin Lewis. 
 

The barrier any ban might face , especially in England,  is that it would actually hurt the smaller clubs  who need the support more than the massive PL and Championship Clubs who earned Millions last year and will do so again when this is over. .  Again where do you draw the line? And as I mentioned earlier , it’s good enough for Victoria Beckham. 

Crack on Motherwell. 
 

 

 

[GazzyB]

We seem to have a good group of players, I would imagine they are all happy to follow any regimes the club ask them to, and I would imagine Robinson would see to it that those that refused wouldn't play for him all that often after this is all over.

[weeyin]

11 hours ago, GazzyB said:

We seem to have a good group of players, I would imagine they are all happy to follow any regimes the club ask them to, and I would imagine Robinson would see to it that those that refused wouldn't play for him all that often after this is all over.

I don't think there is any issues with the players doing what is asked of them. The issue is that the Government may decide not to pay their wages if they feel they aren't really furloughed during that period if they are performing duties normally associated with their employment.

 

[David]

3 minutes ago, weeyin said:

I don't think there is any issues with the players doing what is asked of them. The issue is that the Government may decide not to pay their wages if they feel they aren't really furloughed during that period if they are performing duties normally associated with their employment.

If the government takes such a stance it'll affect a lot more clubs than just us, so I wouldn't worry about it. I'm sure we're following the same protocol that every other football club is.

[0Neils40yarder]

3 hours ago, weeyin said:

I don't think there is any issues with the players doing what is asked of them. The issue is that the Government may decide not to pay their wages if they feel they aren't really furloughed during that period if they are performing duties normally associated with their employment.

 

Any training the club ask them to do while furloughed will bear little, to no, resemblance to what they do on a daily basis at Dalziel Park... 

 

.... That said, I'd be amazed if any professional fitba player wasn't keeping himself fit right now