After a week of vitriolic criticism levelled at football clubs for using the government’s job retention scheme to put some employees on furlough during the Covid-19 crisis, on Wednesday some balance was finally applied. Considering that the culture secretary, Oliver Dowden, had warned some Premier League clubs the scheme was not for them, and his fellow Conservative MP Julian Knight accused clubs of operating in a “moral vacuum” by furloughing staff while still paying players, the source of the measured response was perhaps unlikely: their own chancellor, Rishi Sunak.
He was asked at the government’s Covid-19 press conference about reports that British companies could put a remarkable nine million people on furlough, which, as the government pays 80% of a person’s wage up to £2,500 per month, could cost the Treasury £40bn in three months.
Related: Premier League clubs accused of 'moral vacuum' over pay during virus crisis
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