With businesses at every level looking at all measures to successfully see them through the coronavirus pandemic, those football clubs who are furloughing non-playing staff have been on the end of a stinging rebuke from former England international, Alan Shearer.
Writing in his column for The Sun, Shearer left no one in any doubt as to his own feelings on the controversial matter.
“What doesn’t sit right though is how clubs are increasingly placing their staff on furlough leave,” he noted.
“[…] Furloughing was clearly brought in to help smaller businesses who are really going to be struggling in terms of not having something to go back to. It was not designed to help companies who have made millions and millions of pounds over the last few years.
“Unfortunately, some clubs are not coming out of this too well at the moment.”
Shearer does acknowledge that some players are doing their very best to help, and has used the examples of Marcus Rashford and Jordan Henderson as just two that are trying to do their bit.
Many more are likely to be willing to help but, as Shearer also notes, they don’t feel the need to have their good deeds plastered across the pages of newspapers or splashed across multiple social media accounts.
No, the former Newcastle man’s ire was directed squarely at the clubs, with Liverpool, Tottenham and one of Shearer’s former teams, Newcastle, amongst those known to have furloughed non-playing staff at this time.
Whether the public and media outcry that has shone a light on the situation will encourage those clubs to change their minds is unclear at this stage.