Cod Almighty | Article

by Martin Handsley

22 October 2002

Yet another club is asking its backroom staff to defer a percentage of their wages until 'things get better'.

As reported by BBC Sport, Derby County are struggling to come to terms with the problems associated with relegation and the reduction in income after the ITV Digital collapse last summer.

And yet again, the club is targeting the very people who are most likely to accept a reduction in wages - the backroom staff, and not the people that can most afford it, the players.

In my experience, and I can only relate to the goings-on at Grimsby Town, the backroom staff are mostly underpaid, and do the job they do because of their love of football. For some being involved is enough, and money not the most important thing on their minds as they go about the day-to-day business of running the club.

Obviously these people are easy targets for those clubs that are PLCs, and have shareholders and the City to think about. Quite obviously there are not many chief executives who want to pick a fight with the PFA, and instead pick on those employees who are least likely to fight back.

There are a couple of things that these clubs really need to do if they are to survive. They have to reduce players' wages to levels that will allow the clubs to balance the books. They also have to get rid of those players they don't need.

But both these requirements are impossible at this time.

As Simon Wilson has written elsewhere on this site, Gordon Taylor is continuing to demand that clubs maintain players' contracts, and Taylor thinks the clubs can actually afford to continue to pay players with money they haven't got. If he continues down this path to destruction he'll actually affect his membership far more, as further clubs fold and more and more players end up on the dole.

FIFA have already said it isn't possible to have an open transfer market. So clubs like Leicester, Derby County and our own club are having to find ways of reducing the wage bill without being able to sell off those players surplus to requirements.

This really is madness. The two organisations with the power to stop the game spiralling out of control and to destruction are sitting on their hands and doing absolutely nothing.

But it's not all doom and gloom.

Quite a few clubs in the lower divisions are thriving; and the effects of the ITV Digital collapse, although severe for all clubs, have not been quite as bad for those that have had to survive on so little for so long. Even the footy isn't as bad as it's made out to be. Just try and watch Sky's Goals on Sunday to see some cracking football and goals from these so-called 'little clubs'.

I used to think that relegation for our club would be a disaster, and when the difference in TV earnings was so great, it probably would have been. Now that the gravy train has all but disappeared, survival is the key for our club and many others in similar circumstances. Our club is now trying to 'cut its cloth' according to its resources, and although there are tough times ahead I believe that our club can survive while many bigger clubs may go under.

The only thing for us fans to do is to enjoy what we have for as long as possible, get behind our team, and get through these difficult times together.