No one planned for this pandemic and it just makes you realise how fragile football, and football finances, actually are.
You take away the television money and you have a lot of clubs who perhaps aren’t in as healthy a financial position as you might imagine.
It’s also important to remember that footballers are members of society too, so they are being impacted by everything we are seeing. You’ve got footballers earning a lot of money but money doesn’t insulate you from the problems that a situation like this is going to create, including problems with mental health.
You also have to remember how young a lot of these guys are.
We saw what happened to Jack Grealish a couple of weeks ago. He has paid a heavy price for doing something he should never have done.
But he is only 24, still a very young man, and at that age people are going to make mistakes. I hope that is not something that people hold against him if and when the season resumes.
My big concern is for players and clubs further down the league ladder, because I would be surprised if next season started with 92 clubs.
I think more than two or three will go under. The Premier League can manage for a short period with no income, but clubs in the lower leagues are so dependent on match day revenues. And it’s not just the clubs themselves, it’s all those businesses around the ground, like the hotels and the caterers.
Beyond that, it is the spectators who are going to suffer. For a lot of people, football is their weekend, it’s what they look forward to, it’s where they socialise with their friends and meet their families. You can’t put a price on that.
To lose that would be absolutely devastating and that is what could have massive repercussions beyond football.
Asking top players to take a salary cut is one thing, but regardless of that, this is going to impact English football for a long, long time to come.
Too easy to swipe at wealthy footballers
#PlayersTogether pic.twitter.com/BrVaFcmulI
— Harry Kane (@HKane) April 8, 2020
There is no denying top level footballers get paid an awful lot of money, but that is because they are in the entertainment business. In that sense, they are no different to anyone making huge amounts in any other industry.
Most of them are very high-profile figures, so when a global crisis like this happens, footballers are always going to come under pressure to do their bit. They are the easiest of easy targets and people have jumped all over them for the past couple of weeks.
But I think it is too simplistic to turn on footballers and demand that they take pay cuts. There is a players’ union to represent you when it comes to things like this.
Either way, most players would be happy to take a pay cut for a specified period, and I personally think they should, if only for a short time.
But politicians shouldn't be getting involved and making demands on footballers. Footballers are playing a part in this fight. There are a lot of clubs doing fantastic work in their local communities and I think the players have now really come to the fore in this crisis.
They are taking responsibility in a situation that no one saw coming and they are working out the best way to help as many people as possible.
The fact is, no one knows how long this is going to last. There are so many scenarios and this is a situation that is changing so fast, on an almost daily basis.
So, whatever happens moving forward, I think it has to be done in consultation with the players union, the clubs and the Premier League.
And politicians need to stop having cheap swipes at footballers.
