COVID-19 impact: Former Liverpool stars Carragher, Hamann slam club

Jamie Carragher and Dietmar Hamann

Former players blasted Liverpool for their move to furlough the cub's non-playing staff yesterday as Premier League clubs held talks over possible pay cuts for first-team staff due to the Coronavirus crisis.

The Anfield club said they would top up the public money made available from the Government to ensure staff received their full salaries. It follows similar moves by Newcastle, Tottenham, Bournemouth and Norwich to take advantage of the scheme, under which employers can claim for 80 per cent of furloughed employees' wages. But former Liverpool players Jamie Carragher and Stan Collymore strongly criticised the move by the European champions, who in February announced pre-tax profits of £42 million (US$51 million) for 2018-19.

"[Manager] Jurgen Klopp showed compassion for all at the start of this pandemic, senior players heavily involved in @premierleague players taking wage cuts. Then all that respect & goodwill is lost, poor this @LFC," tweeted Carragher.

Collymore was even more forthright, tweeting: "I don't know of any Liverpool fan of any standing that won't be anything other than disgusted at the club for furloughing staff. Fellow football fans, furlough is for small business staff to keep those small businesses from going bump. Every Premier league owner has serious cash, and make money from skyrocketing values of clubs, so what aren't you getting about your owners dipping into their pocket."

Former midfielder Dietmar Hamann tweeted: "Astonished by the news that @lfc takes advantage of the furlough scheme to claim 80% of non-playing staffs wages back from the government. That's not what the scheme was designed for. Contrary to the morals and values of the club I got to know." Liverpool said staff would be paid 100 per cent of their salaries to ensure nobody was financially disadvantaged.

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