AFC Fylde owner takes aim at the footballing authorities

AFC Fylde owner David Haythornthwaite has lambasted the FA for their lack of support during the current coronavirus crisis.
AFC Fylde owner David HaythornthwaiteAFC Fylde owner David Haythornthwaite
AFC Fylde owner David Haythornthwaite

It comes after he took the “tough” decision to cut the wages of his players and staff by 50 per cent for April and May.

In a statement on Thursday, Haythornthwaite said the loss of income at Mill Farm has forced him into “drastic action to ensure the survival of the club”.

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The club’s chairman suggested he’s been left with no choice but to cut wages due to the lack of “support” and “guidance” from the footballing authorities.

“It was a tough decision in many ways but it’s also an easy decision as well, because my responsibility as chairman of the club is to make sure we still have a football club when all this is over. That’s what all our decisions are based upon,” he said.

“We all know it’s a serious situation out there and the problem is, the virus doesn’t know when the season ends or when the season begins – it has its own agenda and none of us know when this will end.

“We’ve had to make some really tough decisions but we think they are the right decisions for the club.”

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Haythornthwaite added: “As I said in my statement, we’ve been waiting for direction from the National League, we’ve been waiting for direction from the FA and, to a lesser extent, the government.

“It’s a very complex situation. We’re not sure yet whether our staff are covered by this 80 per cent scheme.

“In actual fact no-one knows any details yet because there’s still no details on the government website about how this scheme would work.

“It’s very dangerous for us because what we do know is that we have to pay the wages and then claim it back from the government at a later stage. Without knowing the details, that’s a very risky thing to do.

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“The government scheme, at the moment as far as I’m concerned, doesn’t apply to football. But we’re waiting for further clarification on that.

“As regards to the FA, I think quite frankly they’ve been shambolic in this as they haven’t offered any support or guidance and there’s plenty of money in the FA and in football in general to help clubs down at our level.

“The National League are being guided by the FA and don’t seem to want to make a decision, so we’ve been forced into this unfortunate decision.”

Haythornthwaite does believe, however, that footballers shouldn’t be receiving “handouts” from the government.

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He added: “When you’ve got people in the NHS and other services who are working day and night, a lot of them on very low wages, to look after everybody in the country and when you know how much money is in the football game – we shouldn’t be going to the government and asking for a handout.

“It’s outrageous that people think footballers should get a handout from the government.

“We should be able to take care of ourselves and as ‘we’ I mean the whole game.

“We all know what sort of money is available in the Premier League, it doesn’t take a lot of that to wash down to the lower leagues to help those clubs out.

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“It’s at times like this when everybody should be working together in football and saying to the government: ‘don’t worry, look after the people that need it, we’ll take care of ourselves’. But that’s not happening.”