Exeter City Furloughs Players

Exeter City have made a statement today concerning the furloughing of the players.

As the Club has previously reported the majority of administrative staff based at St James Park were furloughed last month and a small number of staff continue to work from home on essential tasks at the club.

Exeter City has now taken further steps to ease the financial pressure on the club caused by the coronavirus pandemic and has furloughed its players through the Government’s Job Retention scheme as of March 14, as intended, when the season was halted due to the crisis.

The players will be paid 100% of their wages in April and for as long as the club has the level of required resources in conjunction with the assistance from the Government.

In addition, the majority of the senior management and senior players have volunteered to defer a proportion of their wages for the remainder of the current season.

Manager Matt Taylor said:

The support and understanding that the players have shown towards the club throughout this unprecedented time has further underlined their commitment to the club. Both I and the club board are extremely grateful to all the players, and we all look forward to working together in the future. The steps that everyone associated with ECFC have taken will help the stability of our club and put us in a strong position as we move forward through this difficult time.

In a joint statement, Julian Tagg, chairman and director of football, and Nick Hawker, chair of the Supporters’ Trust, said:

The club has been taking and awaiting advice and guidance from the various governing bodies, including the PFA and the EFL, who in conjunction with the PL, LMA and FA, have been working on solutions throughout this period and we, in step with the majority, are joining clubs across the Football League in furloughing players.

“We would certainly echo the sentiments of the manager – who has personally liaised with all the players – and express our gratitude to the squad and senior management who have been so supportive and considerate of the position of the club at this strangest of times. This decision will go a considerable way to protecting the future viability of our club.

We are, no doubt, in exceptional circumstances and it takes exceptional people to react in such a constructive way to this situation and we would like to officially record our thanks to all our staff and players for their dedication support and co-operation.”