Unfair that cultural institutions are getting government handouts and football isn’t, asserts Rick Parry
English Football League chairman Rick Parry has hit out at the government and claimed that English football is being ignored by those in charge of the country in an open letter. The EFL chairman and the board of the English football have been in negotiations with the government but to no avail.
The effects of the coronavirus pandemic have been witnessed worldwide but none more so than within English football’s pyramid. It has placed many football clubs on the verge of bankruptcy with them struggling to cope without match day income and a lack of fans inside stadiums. The latter has been postponed for six more months by Boris Johnson which has further affected the former and it has set off a ticking bomb for a catalogue of EFL sides.
However, the EFL chairman Rick Parry has been in serious discussions with the government and reports indicated that Parry has asked them for £250 million in bailout money for the 72 clubs. But discussions have come to a standstill which has seen Parry write a letter to Oliver Dowden, the culture secretary. In the letter, Parry has marked out the stark differences between other cultural institutions and football with him concerned that the government doesn’t care about the sport.
“While football grounds in Rochdale, Grimsby, Mansfield and Carlisle might be a long way from Glyndebourne or the Royal Ballet. They are nonetheless equally import parts of our nation’s heritage. It must have dawned on you that it is deeply unfair that cultural institutions like these are receiving government hand-outs while also being able to generate revenues by admitting the paying public,” Parry said, reported the Guardian.
“Yet football is told to support itself and its clubs have to play behind closed doors. What is needed is a clear plan as to how we are going to keep EFL clubs in business in the period ahead,” he writes. “In our view, this must involve getting fans safely back into stadia as quickly as possible.
“For some reason, football is being regarded as a peculiarly undeserving case and, as a result, many of our clubs have now reached the conclusion that we are at best being ignored by a Government that doesn’t understand our National Sport and at worst being victimised by it.”
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