The chief executive of the football players' union in England has come out in defence of under-fire Premier League players amid the pay-cut impasse.
After the UK's health secretary Matt Hancock suggested that players should accept a salary reduction due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Premier League released a statement asking players to take a 30% cut.
The statement released last Friday claimed that the cuts would be made in order to protect jobs, according to the clubs.
Following that announcement, Liverpool followed Tottenham, Newcastle United, Norwich City and Bournemouth in placing non-playing staff on furlough which would see 80% of their wages paid by the taxpayer.
The PFA has said that a 30% cut would be bad for the UK's National Health Service, as it would represent a loss of more than £200m in tax contributions.
The union's chief executive Gordon Taylor insists that the players want to do the right thing.
"It's not that they (the players) don't appreciate the seriousness of what we are in," Taylor said in an interview on Sky Sports News.
"It's that if their money is being affected, they want to know what's happening with it, and they would like to have the choice of where it goes to.
"We have so many foreign players who come to this country and they know what it says on the contract they will get, which has not always been the case with them at times in different areas of the world.
"A lot of them also want to help out with their own countries and their own families and looking after their families and friends, the same as the players here.
"So they want a choice if their money is being affected, where that money is going, rather than it being imposed."
Talks between the PFA, the Premier League, League Managers Association and representatives from all clubs will continue this week as they try to hammer out a deal.
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