Taking pay cut to help FA a no-brainer, says Gareth Southgate

England manager Gareth Southgate felt that he wanted to take a pay cut as it will financially help the Football Association during the coronavirus crisis.

Published : Jun 14, 2020 14:26 IST

Gareth Southgate led England to the semifinals of the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

England manager Gareth Southgate has said it was an easy decision to accept a 30% wage cut to help the Football Association (FA) mitigate the financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Football was suspended in March due to the coronavirus outbreak and England's friendlies against Italy, Denmark, Romania and Austria were cancelled. Euro 2020 was also pushed back by a year.

The FA said the lack of international matches and domestic cup games would cost it 100 million pounds ($125.42 million) and Southgate was among the senior figures to take wage cuts for three months starting in April.

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“Firstly, I cant fulfil the whole part of my job at the moment,” the 49-year-old told the Times . “Although I have taken up other responsibilities in this period that didnt feel quite right.

“The second part is we are different to a club I would be the highest earner in the organisation and when the organisation is in financial difficulty ... it didnt feel right to me that I wasnt contributing to the bigger picture.

“We have a lot of people who do brilliant work in different areas and they are not as fortunate to earn what I earn. It wasnt something I was looking to make public but I felt it was a no-brainer."