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In times like this, it’s okay to still think football (or any other sport for that matter), is still important. Not only is it a livelihood for thousands, but a brilliant escape for millions, writes Max Bell.

When lockdown and isolation can seem endless for some people; whatever it is that gives people the prospect of some light at the end of the tunnel, is worth protecting.

Which is why it has been particularly disappointing to see certain politicians, in particular Health Secretary Matt Hancock, use the national game as an opportunity to score a few cheap points in the press.

When it is footballers being attacked for supposedly not doing enough, and not billionaire business owners, CEOs, or bankers; we need to ask ourselves why and who benefits when they’re attacked.

In the last few weeks we have perhaps seen just how undervalued the likes of nurses, shop workers, and even bin-men are; but if anyone in our society is going to make seven-figure pay-cheques, I’d much rather it was professional athletes than city traders and spivs in posh suits.

It won’t be the stock market that gets us through this crisis, it’ll be sticking together and making sure that we all look after everyone in our society; yes, everyone.

And even if we are picking on athletes, why isn’t it tax-dodging F1 racing drivers? Tennis players? Cricketers? No, just footballers.

In the last week alone, we have seen cases of nurses needlessly dying; because they weren’t given basic protective equipment to help save our lives. Is that the government’s fault, or Harry Kane’s? What about the prisons where the coronavirus is claiming lives; because the government cannot provide even the most basic hygiene facilities?

Rather than trying to scapegoat ordinary members of our society (and yes, deep down, even Premier League footballers are people too); the government really should look in the mirror. Otherwise, even more lives will be tragically, and completely needlessly, lost.

Every single professional footballer could announce tomorrow that they’re going to take pay cuts, and no doubt out-of-touch individuals like Matt Hancock would applaud. But at Leagues One and Two, that would mean mortgages go unpaid and livelihoods threatened. Whilst at the top level it would simply funnel money straight back to extremely wealthy owners.

To put it bluntly, these owners don’t need the additional cash injection. Whereas whilst the NHS, charities, and hospices are desperately short of both cash and equipment; I can think of a million better uses for any hypothetically saved cash.

It was good to see Liverpool change their minds after extensive fan pressure; but when the likes of Tottenham and Newcastle have already furloughed hundreds of non-playing staff in shabby penny-pinching moves, it’s easy to see where the real sinners are.

If people are seriously claiming that the likes of Mike Ashley, the Glazers, and Man City’s petro-billionaire sheiks seriously need 20 percent from their wage bill back; then football was already on its last legs long before the coronavirus struck. Being financially bankrupt is one thing, but moral bankruptcy quite another.

Footballers’ trade union body the PFA have quite rightly pointed out that a 30% pay cut across the Premier League alone, would lose the government £200m in lost tax revenue. Wouldn’t that money be better off spent in the NHS?

Jordan Henderson has already set up a fund for footballers trying to help, whilst the internet is awash of cases of individual football players, managers and staff volunteering in whatever way they can.

Quite reasonably, Wayne Rooney has asked why the Health Secretary was even thinking about footballers’ pay whilst updating the nation on the crisis. Was Hancock trying to distract people from the government’s questionable crisis management? That the government haven’t pinpointed exactly where wealthy individuals can financially help their communities says more about them, than it does a few potentially over-paid professional athletes.

Clubs at the lower end of the pyramid, including our own local sides, really may need that money to survive. But in the long-term, football really will need to completely change how it approaches money if we’re only ever one crisis away from even more clubs going to the wall.

The crisis is so grave that on a personal level; as someone caring for a high-risk family member, I haven’t left the house in nearly two weeks. We even have our own Prime Minister in intensive care, suffering with the coronavirus, and I sincerely hope he pulls through for a full recovery in the coming days.

Yet in his absence, Johnson’s government would be so much better off looking in the mirror at their own failings; rather than a pointless, and wrong-headed, attack on the beautiful game.