Readers pay tribute to former West Bromwich Albion and England striker Cyrille Regis, discuss construction firm Carillion’s collapse and what this says about private companies and government contracts, and the ongoing gender pay row within the BBC – and how this may, or may not trickle down to other sectors and pay-grades.

To join in you can click on the links in the comments below to expand and add your thoughts. We’ll continue to highlight more comments worth reading as the day goes on.

‘This sounds like another typical story of British corporate failure’

Shareholders and executives paying themselves enormous salaries and bleeding the company dry, running out of money and trying to recoup their losses by entering into risky deals that then collapsed. Do big businesses in Germany or even the much-maligned USA collapse all the time, no they don’t, because they have regulations that prevent them from doing so.

ConstantCarping

‘Usually it doesn’t happen to giant firms’

An overconfident company overextending itself and subsequently getting in deep trouble. It’s actually fairly common, but usually it doesn’t happen to giant firms. Most of the time, the shareholders stop it in advance and if they don’t, there’s usually no shortage of competitors willing to take high-performing sections of the company for cut-rate prices. Complete collapse could have been avoided. I remember reading about Carillon’s debt issues more than a year ago.

Silberkreuz

‘The companies concerned rely on, in the case of building work, screwing the subcontractors’

The public sector bidding process for contracts has got to the stage where the bids have to be so low to get the contract, that they are not viable. The companies concerned rely on, in the case of building work, screwing the subcontractors so they lose money through penalties or, in the case of service provision, depressing the wages they pay and making the service they provide awful. It’s the only way they make a profit. The people handing out the contracts just want to look good by being able to say, ‘we negotiated a great deal for the government’. They get the kudos and rewards for doing that and walk away when there is poor service, when the scheme grinds to a halt, when more money has to be put in or sometimes, the contracts turned the tables on government and end up screwing them, eg, hospitals built on PFI money.

authurn

Julia Regis, Regis’ widow, says ‘Cyrille and I were soulmates, he was the perfect man for me and we had a wonderful life together’ Photograph: Alamy Stock Photo

‘I told him when I finally got to meet him how much he meant to me growing up’

A very sad day. He inspired me as a child, back then he was one of the only black faces I regularly saw on screen. Terraces were very hostile to black players, racism was awful, I remember feeling very afraid of that whole environment. But Cyrille seemed to thrive in it. He smiled, went in hard, put himself about and scored lots of goals he was my Saturday night Match of the Day hero week in, week out. I told him when I finally got to meet him a couple of years ago how much he meant to me growing up, we laughed and we talked about the work i’d done, it was a lovely moment. A very sad day.

David Harewood

‘A great player, the sort of bloke you respected whether he played for or against your side’

RIP - he was a great player, the sort of bloke you respected whether he played for or against your side. It was difficult too with with the racism to make a career in football but he rose above that and succeeded.

Addicks123

‘Made it at the top level when it was murderously difficult for black players to do so’

Shocking. 59 is no age to go.

And, as a very fine footballer who made it at the top level when it was murderously difficult for black players to do so, he would have deserved a long and happy life.

Hibernica

‘I would have so much more respect if they compared what they were earning in relation to the cleaner on minimum wage’

The trouble with this article and the whole BBC debacle is that it comes across as middle class woman throwing the toys out the pram because they are not earning so much as their male counterparts under the guise of equality. I would have so much more respect for them if they turned the whole argument around and compared what they and their male counterparts were earning in relation to the cleaner on minimum wage who is struggling to make ends meet and agree there must be more parity in incomes but not just for gender but for society in general. Sure the top man/woman who works hard deserves more than someone who coasts through life but all deserve a comfortable living wage.

a11seeingeye

‘The real disparity in the BBC is between well paid staffers and freelancers’

The real disparity in the BBC is between well paid staffers with secure jobs and pensions and freelancers with completely insecure jobs and often lower salaries. This isn’t a gender based split but a when they joined the bbc (and thus often age) division.

oofocus

Comments have been edited for length. This article will be updated throughout the day with some of the most interesting ways readers have been participating across the site.