Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy is quickly becoming one of the most hated men in English sport over his "pure greed" at a time of crisis.
Levy announced 550 non-playing staff at the club will see their wages cut by 20 per cent for the next two months on the same day it was revealed he was paid £7 million ($14 million) last season.
Spurs accounts to June 30, 2019 revealed Levy was paid a $6 million bonus, which was due on completion of Tottenham's new 62,000 stadium, on top of his $8 million salary.
The new Tottenham Hotspur stadium opened in April last year, eight months later than scheduled and well over budget at a cost of $2 billion.
Levy is among the staff members taking a 20 per cent wage cut — and he has also called on Tottenham's players to follow the club's staff in taking wage cuts to ease the financial crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
The Sun reports some of the 550 staff have been placed on furlough, which will allow them to claim 80 per cent of their wages from the government up to a monthly maximum of £2,500.
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However, the club and Levy are under fire for taking advantage of the government subsidies for stood down workers while prominent figures at the club continue to rake in cash.
Tottenham manager Jose Mourinho is reported to earn almost $600,000 per week, while star striker Harry Kane is also earning a reported $400,000 per week.
With Levy's bonus and revelations Tottenham club owner Joe Lewis has a net worth of more than $8 billion — commentators have slammed the club for its "absolutely disgraceful" move to stand workers down.
"It kinda stinks that a Premier League club is drawing taxpayers' money," Marting Ziegler, chief sports reporter for The Times told Talk Sport Radio.
"I think that's the wrong use of the furlough scheme, when you've got a business that made a £60m profit last year."
Players at Barcelona, Juventus and Bayern Munich are among those to have taken either a significant wage cut or deferred payments.
Football in England is suspended until at least April 30 and a meeting of Premier League clubs on Friday is expected to push that date further back.
"Having already taken steps to reduce costs, we ourselves made the difficult decision, in order to protect jobs, to reduce the remuneration of all 550 non-playing directors and employees for April and May by 20 per cent," Levy said in a statement on Spurs' website.
"We hope the current discussions between the Premier League, PFA (Professional Footballers' Association) and LMA (League Managers Association) will result in players and coaches doing their bit for the football eco system."
Tottenham earlier this month posted profits of £68.6 million for the year to June 2019 on the back of a run to the Champions League final and the stadium move.
However, Levy said those numbers bore little relevance, with the club facing a difficult period and uncertainty among sponsors and media partners.
"When I read or hear stories about player transfers this summer like nothing has happened, people need to wake up to the enormity of what is happening around us," he added.
"We maybe the eighth-largest club in the world by revenue according to the Deloitte survey but all that historical data is totally irrelevant as this virus has no boundaries."
