Liverpool FC, who made a pre-tax profit of £42m with a turnover of £533m in 2018-19, has today announced that they will put some staff on the government furlough scheme, allowing them to claim 80% of their lost wages from the government, up to £2500 a month. Liverpool will then pay the extra 20% so that employees are paid in full.

Whilst the employees themselves are not financially disadvantaged, it is outrageous for a business the size of Liverpool to take advantage of the furlough scheme to pay their workers. Liverpool FC is an absurdly profitable business, owned by billionaires, with playing staff on salaries worth millions of pounds a year. The scheme was designed to protect the income of employees working for small businesses who genuinely can't afford to pay their staff, not multimillion-pound football clubs. Whilst Liverpool is well within its legal rights to claim the reimbursement, it is against the community ethos and culture of the club that they proudly promote and use as a key selling point. In times of crisis such as this, social responsibility should outweigh the financial value.

I am petitioning to my club who I have supported all my life, to reconsider this decision, and to pay out of their own pockets rather than the taxpayer's pot which is needed more desperately elsewhere.