West Brom CEO takes temporary 100% pay cut

West Bromwich Albion chief executive Mark Jenkins has said he will not receive pay while the UK is in lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Football in England is currently suspended indefinitely and executives and management at a number of clubs have taken pay deferrals for the suspension period.

In a statement on the club’s website, Jenkins said: “Obviously, the priority for us all is the health and welfare of our loved ones and beyond that, giving all the support we can to the front-line staff who are leading the fight against Covid 19.

“But it is my core task now to do all I can to steer the club safely through challenges we have never faced before and that responsibility will be at the heart of every decision taken in the difficult days which remain ahead.”

Jenkins said that, at the moment, the club is financially stable and “remains so for the foreseeable future”.

“But everybody is fully aware these are very uncertain times in which we simply cannot forecast what the future holds. Until we regain a level of certainty, we cannot be sure if planned income will actually be received or if we will be forced to utilise cash the club already holds to refund existing commitments.

“What we do know for fact is that our operations are almost completely closed down and we are receiving virtually no income. Almost all of the club’s usual costs still need to be paid, the majority of which are wages whether this be admin staff, maintenance teams, management or, of course, the first-team players.

“With that in mind, I think it is only correct that for the duration of this lockdown I take a 100% cut in my salary and other members of the senior management team have also offered to take significant reductions in their remuneration.”

Jenkins said that, like many other clubs, it has considered using a furlough approach with non-playing staff who are now unable to work owing to the lockdown and has “made plans for this eventuality”.