Premier league players have refused their clubs plan for players to take a 30 percent pay cut to ease the financial bruden on clubs during the coronavirus crisis. Manchester city captain Kevin De Bruyne, Watford captain Troy Deeney and West Ham's Mark Noble led the fightback in a video conference.

Premier League chiefs and club executives thought the players were ready to buy into their proposal for a wage cut or deferral of up to 30 per cent designed to stave off financial meltdown caused by the coronavirus crisis. But the message they got back from the players was ‘We’d rather give our cash to the NHS than help out our rich owners’.

Players wanted to be sure the proceeds of any wage cut would guarantee staff at their clubs receive 100 per cent of their wages, support EFL and non-league clubs, and help fund the NHS health workers. 

The proposed 30 per cent salary deduction over a 12-month period equates to over £500million in wage reductions and a loss in tax contributions of over £200m to the Government from which the club owners would benefit exponentially.