Club Statement

[Hibernian FC]

CLUB STATEMENT

Hibernian FC today thanked all of its employees – staff and players – after the club reached mutual agreement to furlough the majority of its people following a period of constructive consultation in order to protect jobs and incomes. A core group, including some senior managers, ticket office and communications staff, are continuing to work from home to keep the club’s operations moving forward.

Individual arrangements remain confidential, however employees have agreed to defer salaries by between 20 per cent and 50 per cent.

Football matches were among the first things to be stopped by the football authorities and Government in the bid to tackle coronavirus in mid-March, massively impacting on the ability of all clubs to generate revenue over the next few months. The club took an early decision, to protect the health and safety of all staff, to have all its people to work from home The club has continued to be in regular contact with all its employees to support their needs during these challenging times.

In addition, after careful deliberation, season tickets were launched last week – a little later than usual – in order to bring in much-needed revenue.

Leeann Dempster, Chief Executive, said: “Our main aims through this crisis are to look after our people and our community, and to protect this club for the future. We have spoken with staff and our players. They have all been superbly supportive and committed through this whole issue, and we have agreed that we should furlough.

“Senior staff and players have also agreed to defer a significant percentage of their income. This will help the club manage its finances through this difficult period. The Chairman has said that the club will repay any shortfall in earnings over an agreed period once things return to normal.

“The club hopes that taking this action early will ease some of the cashflow pressure we are facing now and in the coming months, allowing us to see this national crisis out without losing any of our people and keeping the club in a good place to compete when football does return to Easter Road.

“We have also seen a magnificent response from supporters, and we are grateful to all of those who have felt able to buy a season ticket and offer this vital support. If you feel able to commit, please do. We are also very aware that many will not feel able to commit at this time for very understandable reasons. To all our fans, we will be as flexible as we can to help you get your season ticket, and we are looking forward to seeing you all back at Easter Road.

“Finally, we can’t repeat it enough. We are thinking of you, and we hope you are following advice and keeping yourselves and your loves ones safe and well.”



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[Greenmachine]

The club have dealt with this as well as can be expected given the extreme circumstances.

 

[1875]

The club have dealt with this as well as can be expected given the extreme circumstances.

Agree, and done it without shite spilling out into the press. One thing I dont understand is the "Individual arrangements remain confidential, however employees have agreed to defer salaries by between 20 per cent and 50 per cent", no sure what that means exactly, maybe KP has a better handle on it?

 

[Daddy 'O' Hibee]

Maybe the higher earners on longer contracts taking bigger percentage cuts. We'll never know. Glad I'm a Hibby.

 

[Forzahibs]

Well I've renewed for me & Robert , just need to see what happens between now and whenever

 

[wrighty]

Seems reasonable and a good gesture by the players and staff. I would have assumed the 20% to 50% has allowed a but flexibility depending upon personal circumstances and level of wage.

 

[Power]

Agree, and done it without shite spilling out into the press. One thing I dont understand is the "Individual arrangements remain confidential, however employees have agreed to defer salaries by between 20 per cent and 50 per cent", no sure what that means exactly, maybe KP has a better handle on it?

Down to personal circumstances but some have agreed to defer a high percentage.
Everyone doing their bit - supporters, staff and players.

 

[Power]

 

[SlovSam]

So no one is actually taking a pay cut. ?

All they are doing is deferring the wages to be paid back at a later agreed time.

So in 12 months time Scott Allan will still have received his £200,000 a year covering lets say a 6 month period where he didn't actually do any work.

However his salary deferral of 25% means that in the meantime he will still be getting paid £150,000 with £50,000 guaranteed to come later.?

I am not seeing this as particularly generous in the current climate and its not enough for me to buy a season ticket for an unknown start date on the "we all in this together basis".?

 

[cleanyman]

Not buying it

Embarrassing

Had to be done though

 

[Amsterdam]

Like everything else in this crisis, there are different roads chosen to deal with each problem. Hibernian & the SRU decide on wage deferrals & the sparry heids & SFA/SPFL go for a wage cut.
Damned if you do...

 

[Rocky]

Aren't player wages generally around 50% fixed / 50% bonuses (appearance / win etc). If so, and assuming any games don't go ahead, they'll presumably be getting de facto pay cuts. Seems a fair way to do it to me.

 

[vasco de gama]

There is no fair way to do it in an industry that overpays players, managers, coaches, pundits, so called journalists etc while fleecing the fans at the gate and through tv subscriptions. Hibs are by no means the worst but it’s still ridiculous that decidedly average players will continue to get paid 10 times or more the salary that someone working 12 hour shifts in direct contact with people who are dying of Covid-19 get.

It is not just a football thing though. Our collective obsession with Z list celebrities who produce nothing that is actually all that unique or talented is part of what leads to the situation of a healthcare infrastructure that cannot cope with emergencies like this.

Having said all that I know I’d still get all star struck like I did last summer when Stevie Mallan said hi to me and my kids at the training camp.

 

[Smurf]

I am not at all convinced by this. This deferal just boxes us in financially for me. I am no expert but I really can't see us playing football for some considerable time. Best case scenario for me is six months in October. And that for me is the positive outlook. If that's the case it puts us in a very difficult financial position.

 

[PILTONSTANY]

I am not at all convinced by this. This deferal just boxes us in financially for me. I am no expert but I really can't see us playing football for some considerable time. Best case scenario for me is six months in October. And that for me is the positive outlook. If that's the case it puts us in a very difficult financial position.

Reckon they’ll be banking on Scottish Cup semis to make up the shortfall,the teams will want to play it some point in Sept or whenever

 

[1875]

Reckon they’ll be banking on Scottish Cup semis to make up the shortfall,the teams will want to play it some point in Sept or whenever

Imagine the shame of losing to a Championship team.

 

[SlovSam]

I am not sure if Ron and the Hibs board are getting to grips with the seriousness of the financial situation and where football fits into the geo -political problem of the next 6 months or even more.

Virologists (is that the right word) are looking at football matches such as the now infamous Atlanta v Valencia CL match and concluding that 40,000 football fans socialising together is a biological time bomb.

Germanys worst affected region at the start of the crisis before football was shut down was North Rhine Westphalia home of Dortmund, Schalke 04, Koln and Monchengladbach.

Germany virologists are already talking about fan free football until early 2021 and no government is going to ignore that powerful lobby.

EDIT: Aberdeen Chairman is now saying exactly the same thing about fan free football in Scotland until end of the year.?

The evidence is all there from the Far East and religious festivals where mass testing is carried out.

One in Malaysia (Taglichi festival) had only 16,000 participants.?

It was found within a week there were a huge number of new active carriers causing untold damage in their communities as well as transporting the virus further across SE Asia.

Closed doors games are a vague possibility if you regard football as a special case above all other sports and you will need to negotiate medical cover which isn't going to be socially acceptable.

Live games in front of any audience is even further away and is way beyond the bottom tree in the furthest away field.

No harm in Hibs asking for season tickets money for those that would like to contribute and a wage deferral is I suppose something.

Though its really next to nothing as Hibs are a cash rich club with no cash flow problems for the moment at least so I can see a complete reassessment of this very limited strategy in 3 months time.

 

[Rocky]

I am not sure if Ron and the Hibs board are getting to grips with the seriousness of the financial situation and where football fits into the geo -political problem of the next 6 months or even more.

Virologists (is that the right word) are looking at football matches such as the now infamous Atlanta v Valencia CL match and concluding that 40,000 football fans socialising together is a biological time bomb.

Germanys worst affected region at the start of the crisis before football was shut down was North Rhine Westphalia home of Dortmund, Schalke 04, Koln and Monchengladbach.

Germany virologists are already talking about fan free football until early 2021 and no government is going to ignore that powerful lobby.

The evidence is all there from the Far East and religious festivals where mass testing is carried out.

One in Malaysia (Taglichi festival) had only 16,000 participants.?

It was found within a week there were a huge number of new active carriers causing untold damage in their communities as well as transporting the virus further across SE Asia.

Closed doors games aren't going to happen as football isn't a special case above all other sports and you will need to negotiate medical cover which isn't going to be socially acceptable.

Live games in front of any audience is even further away and is way beyond the bottom tree in the furthest away field.

No harm in Hibs asking for season tickets money for those that would like to contribute and a wage deferral is I suppose something.

Though its really next to nothing as Hibs are a cash rich club with no cash flow problems so I can see a complete reassessment of this very limited strategy in 3 months time.

What makes you think Hibs are a cash rich club? Genuine question

 

[SlovSam]

View media item 274
This was from last month around the time of the last AGM when the accounts for 2019 were filed.

Its not a strictly accurate headline as there will be liabilities falling due within a year that the reporter would lazily not have reported and there would have been losses to date in this financial year and since then the income stream is now frozen.?

However last years statutory accounts were very solid and Ron put in an extra £1.5 million of working capital ie dosh at the time of the take over in November of last year.

I dont underestimate the severity of the next 12 months and the club are right to try to maximise season tickets sales from those who want to commit but this is also a club who start from a secure financial footing.

 

[Smurf]

Reckon they’ll be banking on Scottish Cup semis to make up the shortfall,the teams will want to play it some point in Sept or whenever

I just can't see 50,000 being allowed together in September....

 

[Rocky]

That's the cash in bank figure at end of July, with all season ticket money in. Hibs burn through nearly a million a month so there won't be much of that left.

 

[Forzahibs]

I just can't see 50,000 being allowed together in September....

no chance

 

[Hibee Kev]

Can’t see too much Hibs are doing wrong TBH, from the information available my personal opinion is if a worst case scenario unfolds as @SlovSam suggests it’ll only be us and Celtic last men standing anyway, in which case the games a bogey? ?‍

 

[PILTONSTANY]

I just can't see 50,000 being allowed together in September....

It was more the point that they’ve got this guaranteed £500k or whatever coming in towards any wage bills rather than an actual date of playing it,they’ve obv looked at the numbers and think we’ll be ok.
Time will tell.