After incurring a loss of 300 million pounds ($370 million) over four years and mostly due to the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the English Football Association (FA) is all set to lay-off 82 staffers. The pandemic has severely affected the sports industries across the globe with all major governing bodies taking a financial blow.
“COVID-19 has had a significant impact on The FA and we now have a greater understanding of the long-term and irreversible effect of the pandemic on our finances,” the statement on FA’s official website read.
“The high level of uncertainty in our landscape means that we have had to plan for a whole range of potential scenarios. As previously communicated, we are currently planning for potential losses of approximately £300million. As a not-for-profit organisation, this will hit us hard.
“Following much consideration of the situation we find ourselves in, we have reached a position where we have formulated proposals to begin a consultation process around reducing the size of our overall team at The FA. These proposals are to reshape the organisation with the level of resource available in this smaller budget.
“Today we are proposing to make 124 positions redundant. Because we halted recruitment the day we left the offices in March, we are able to take 42 vacant positions out of the structure, which means that we are proposing to remove 82 roles from the organisation.
“We recognise that this is an incredibly difficult time for those employees who have been affected by these proposals and we will do everything we can to support them during a consultation period, which will start soon,” the statement from Mark Bullingham, FA chief executive, added.
The FA owned Wembley Stadium was all set to host the UEFA Euro Championship from next month but the continental tournament was postponed by a year.
Even though top-flight football – the FA Cup and English Premier League – has returned to England, matches without fans have made it impossible for the clubs and the organisers to rake up match-day selling through ticket selling and other means.