The Football Association (FA) says it will make 82 people redundant as the governing body braces for approximate losses of £300million caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
An estimated loss of £300m is expected by the FA as a consequence of the COVID-19 outbreak, forcing them to make redundancies
The Football Association (FA) says it will make 82 people redundant as the governing body braces for approximate losses of £300million caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
While COVID-19 brought mass disruption to sport across the world, it also caused many other industries to come to a standstill, and the FA has been impacted by more than just the three-month suspension of football.
All events due to be held at Wembley Stadium since March have been unable to go ahead, while all future bookings for the year – which include concerts and NFL matches – had to be scrapped.
Hospitality revenue for Wembley Stadium brings in an estimated £35m to the FA every year, but the not-for-profit organisation considers that figure to have "completely fallen away and will probably take years to recover".
The financial implications of the pandemic have forced the FA to analyse all areas of the business for cost-saving purposes, but CEO Mark Bullingham revealed the situation worsened to an extent where staff need to be cut.
In a statement published to the FA's website, Bullingham wrote: "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.
"Therefore, over recent months, we have forensically analysed the budget of every division within The FA in order to identify the most suitable areas to make costs savings; and the situation has worsened to a point where we now need to reduce the size of The FA in order to deal with the financial impact of the crisis.
"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.
"Proposing redundancies is the toughest cost-saving measure that any organisation can consider implementing, but we believe that we must now adapt and future-proof the organisation to ensure our cost base reflects a future with significantly lower revenues.
"We have a responsibility to preserve our core functions that regulate and serve English football. We also have a duty to support our men's and women's senior teams in their efforts to win major tournaments.
"That means we have set out in our proposals some difficult choices because we do not think we can afford to do all the things that we did before. We believe the impact of this crisis is to force us to focus more than ever on our key priorities."