Richard Scudamore is paid £5m yet 16 of 20 Premier League clubs won’t even pay the real Living Wage. That’s a disgrace

Five million pounds could pay for 2,300 low-paid workers at Premier League clubs to have their annual wages raised to the real Living Wage. It could increase the salaries of every single low-paid worker at two large stadiums to the proper Living Wage. So the Emirates Stadium, or Old Trafford, for example.

Five million pounds could pay the salary of 285 cleaners on the real Living Wage for a year, or 285 security guards, or 285 match-day staff.

We are frequently told about the billions of pounds Premier League clubs generate; the hundreds of millions they spend on transfers each window; the players earning more than a quarter of a million pounds every week. How many of the clubs, then, would you guess pay the real Living Wage to all of the low-paid workers at their clubs? Go on, have a go. Three quarters? Half? It’s four. Chelsea, Everton, West Ham United and Liverpool.

Scudamore’s outrageous bonus

It has taken four years to reach this point, since former Labour MP Frank Field, who served as Minister of Welfare Reform in Tony Blair’s government, first led a campaign to pressure all top-flight clubs to pay their staff fairly. Initially, they were quite quick on the uptake, committing to paying their in-house staff the real Living Wage. Which was great. Only, thousands of staff in the lowest paid roles — the cleaners and security guards and match-day staff — are subcontracted through agencies, and are not paid the real Living Wage.

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So it took Bruce Buck a few minutes to explain to representatives from the 20 Premier League clubs at a meeting last week that they would each be chipping in £250,000 for Richard Scudamore, Buck’s close friend with whom he goes shooting, to receive a £5m bonus when he steps down from two decades in charge of the league next month, a decision which did not need a vote and was already signed off by the remuneration committee. Chaired by Buck. Who, did I mention, is Scudamore’s close friend?

A few minutes to discuss an outrageous deal that not all the Premier League clubs agreed with but had no choice in the matter. Four years to convince four Premier League clubs to pay the real Living Wage (and this includes Liverpool, who only committed three months ago).

Spare change down the back of the sofa

To put that quarter-million per club payment into context: it would place Scudamore comfortably inside the top 100 most expensive signings of several Premier League clubs; Brighton’s 46th, Huddersfield’s joint 58th (with Elias Kachunga, in case you were wondering) and Cardiff City’s 69th.

“It’s remarkable that Premier League football clubs can fish down the back of their sofas to find a £5m farewell bonus for the Premier League executive chairman yet only four pay all staff working at their stadiums a real Living Wage,” Matthew Bolton, executive director of Citizens UK, which is running a national campaign with workers to get more football clubs paying the real Living Wage, tells i. “The remaining Premier League clubs urgently need to address the injustice of the thousands of low-paid workers not being paid enough to live on, or they risk losing all respect from the communities they call home.”

Staggeringly, in total only nine organisations involved with football in the UK pay the real Living Wage. The four Premier League clubs mentioned. Then FC United of Manchester, Heart of Midlothian, Luton Town, Derby County and the Football Supporters’ Federation. Nine. Of 92 Premier League and Football League clubs, clubs across the UK and the various football administrators, many of whom boast of employees earning six figure salaries.

Cleaning Scudamore’s toilet

“Everton, Chelsea, West Ham and Liverpool have stepped up, showing they believe that a hard day’s work should mean a fair day’s pay, and recognise that Living Wage accreditation is the mark of a responsible employer,” Tess Lanning, director at the Living Wage Foundation, said. “Their decision shows that big clubs can do the right thing by their community and, most importantly, by all their staff including match-day staff who keep the stadium clean and fans safe. We encourage all football clubs to join our movement of employers who pay all their staff, including those on third party contracts, a wage they can live on.”

Well done, football, we hope you’re proud of yourself. A sport once the pride of the working man is now the ugliest, most grotesque example of corporate greed and and the ever growing divide between rich and poor.

At one end, the executives and the owners and the managers and the players; at the other, the workers who keep them safe, serve them food and drink and clean the toilets after they’ve used them.