Football news- Norwich City defend decision to furlough staff and expect to lose up to £35m
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ByEurosport
Updated 25/04/2020 at 08:30 GMT
Norwich City expect to lose up to £35m as a result of the coronavirus pandemic and will "stick to their guns" over their decision to furlough non-playing staff.
Norwich City v Liverpool FC
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Norwich and Newcastle United are currently the only two Premier League clubs to be making use of the UK government's job retention scheme.
This means 200 members of Norwich's non-playing staff - including casual workers - will be paid 80% of their wages by the government with the Canaries paying the remaining 20%.
With Norwich set to lose up to £35m as a result of suspended/abandoned matches and anticipated Premier League rebates to broadcasters, Norwich CEO Ben Kensell says the club will not be reversing their decision.
"The decision we made was in the best interests of the club and its staff," he told BBC Radio Norfolk.
"We've been very transparent that we're run in a self-financed manner. We generate a turnover of £123m - £93m of that is broadcast, and we've spent £125m this year - and that's how we run the club,
Ultimately, if we had the available cashflow to not have to take up schemes then, like other football clubs have, we would.
Liverpool, Tottenham and Bournemouth all initially furloughed staff before reversing their decisions amid public criticism.
But Kensell insists Norwich have to stick to their strategy to try and avoid "a raft of redundancies".
"The difference is we're running it as a business and we're running it the best way we believe will help it for the future," he added.
"It's also about our staff. What we don't want is a raft of redundancies.
"We knew we'd get criticised as a result of it; what we're not going to do is take a different view on that. We'll stick to our guns and we believe we are doing it for the right reasons.
"We've got the best owners in football - that's a fact. We haven't got the richest owners but we like to think we're doing things the right way."
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