Wayne Rooney...
 

Wayne Rooney has criticised the government and Premier League for putting Britain’s top-flight footballers in a “no-win situation” over the problem of pay cuts, with Gary Lineker and Gary Neville also speaking out.

Writing in the Sunday Times, Rooney claimed his fellow professionals were being lined up as “easy targets” in the wider response to the coronavirus crisis and branded government criticism of players “a disgrace”.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.the...ineker-neville

If only we had a group of people in charge of the whole country with the ability to dictate how much money they take from the wealthiest people.

While criticising footballers, the tory government will undoubtedly bail out billionaires Richard Branson and Philip Greene who've screwed over their employees.

the public have been moaning about the amount footballers are paid for a long time, it's no surprise to me that they are seen as target now. When times are tough, things get real

I recently learnt Branson was a massive self entitled tool , it's always the richest who behave the worst . The amount of money they have yet they still act greedy.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/h...-a8080961.html

NHS makes undisclosed settlement to Richard Branson's Virgin Care after legal dispute

This man will get a bail out, yet footballers who've been actively supporting the NHS, providing and working with food banks etc, are an easy public enemy to obfuscate how the gov have handled this crisis from the start.

How he isnt on the sex offenders list for sleeping with 90 year old grannies is beyond me fat ogre

I don't think having having sex with older people is a sex crime. That's probably the main reason.

Rooney is worried Coleen will leave if he ain't bringing in big money?

Wayne who ??? not nterested in anything a spoilt millionaire footballer has to say sorry !

Footballers are an easy target, are other CEO’s being asked to give up 30 per cent of income, they should take a cut but then so should many others, TV broadcasters and media tycoons

They are easy targets for a reason

Many have gone off partying
One crashed his car the day after begging people to stay indoors
Another had a sex party while saying people should follow rules

Even if he has a point in what he is saying?

The excuse that made me smile the most was, taking money off footballers means they pay less tax, which means the NHS suffers.

that's 2 out of how many?

Pep donated 1 million to Spanish Healthcare, but unfortunately lost his Mum yesterday

Rooney was yesterday told off by the police for breaking the rules by meeting up with another footballer so he doesnt help the case.

I agree a fair few footballers have donated and been great but the bad ones make the mud stick

I'd have thought the dangerous parallels of a government deciding that the assets of one specific group of people should be opened up for public use, would be pretty evident.

Agree. I'm all for wealth redistribution but it should be in the form of slapping say a 5% tax hike on earnings over £x million across the board, not for one specific sector. There are plenty of non-sportspeople bringing in high salaries, not sure why they're being specifically targeted other than because of their visibility.

I'm of the opinion that overpaid footballers should not continue to be paid the massive amounts they get while the football club itself takes taxpayers money to pay the rest of the staff.

the problem really isn't with the high paid, the problem is with the owners effectively dumping their other staff and abusing the current situation where the government (ie us) pay for it. The owners really should just say, ok, we are reducing salaries above x per week by 30% or whatever to pay staff. If a player then chooses to leave the club because of that, then that individual will have to carry that for the rest of their career. I would imagine most players would be happy to contribute in the circumstances

I agree with all of that.

3 teams have done this, and one has already reversed it's decisions. Trying to get millionaire footballers to pay for the actions taken by their billionaire bosses is a little confusing.

Branson is doing the exact same thing, and yet no one is pretending that the Virgin employees should be punished.

Soldier is right, it needs to be a tax across the board, not the targeting of a successful group made up of a majority of the working class, BAME, and foreigners.

Branson has always been a nasty bastard, can't stand him, i don't know why he is held in high regard by so many. The Newcastle owner is another one who will use and abuse a situation for his own gain.

Tax rules are going to change because of this pandemic, they will have to. 6 -12 months of recovery, get everything back on a solid footing, then all bets are off on tax

I think you're optimistically overestimating a post covid tory reaction. There'll be lots of platitudes no doubt to the bravery of our health workers, but it's far more likely to be used for more austerity than a fairer tax policy and society. They've been happy enough to let an estimated 100,000 people die over the last decade due to their cuts, so what's 20-30,000 more?

I wouldn't put it past them to use it to justify making additional cuts that they don't even "need" to make.

"Oh sorry but that Covid-19 you know, very sad, means we have to slash the special educational needs budget in half, what a shame. Darn you, virus!"