Former Republic of Ireland international and Premier League footballer Jonathan Walters has criticised the comments of British health secretary Matt Hancock regarding professional players' wages in England.
Speaking exclusively to Off The Ball, the former Stoke City forward rejected the claims of Britain's health secretary Matt Hancock that Premier League footballers ought to be taking a pay cut as the economy stumbles amid the uncertainty of the coronavirus pandemic.
"It always come on footballers," remarked Walters. "Is that because he's there in London and picking on the bankers is not the done thing? I don't know, but it easy to pick on a working-class sport.
"I'm not saying for one second that the wages I received as a player or the wages other players receive now are not huge, I'm not defending it but it is just what the market dictates.
"There are people that earn more being a banker and there are other sports people who earn a lot more than most footballers. Matt Hancock coming out and saying something, I just didn't really understand it and it got my back up a little bit."
After recently calling halt to a professional career in England that spanned almost 20 years, Jonathan Walters, who also earned 54 international caps for the Republic of Ireland, spent a memorable seven season stint with Stoke City in the top flight.
In Matt Hancock's comments regarding the wages of players and what they should be doing to aid the current crisis, Walters believes that such a populist suggestion may garner the British government short-term adulation, but does little to remedy the issue at hand.
The British health secretary said: "Given the sacrifices that many people are making, including some of my colleagues in the NHS who have made the ultimate sacrifice of going into work and have caught the disease and have sadly died, I think the first thing that Premier League footballers can do is make a contribution, take a pay cut and play their part."
"It is a very, very easy target to look at Premier League footballers and say that they should be taking pay cuts," countered Walters, "[but this government] like to do popular things to make themselves look great, but people don't really understand.
"How about they call out the airline bosses who take huge dividends before furloughing their staff, or the tax exiles who own companies here? What about the bankers who the government bailed out years ago? How about asking them to take a huge cut? It's easy to pick on a footballer, yet they're contributing a lot to the economy with the taxes they already pay.
"Furthermore, most of the footballers I know are doing a lot for charity, a lot for their communities but they just don't shout about it. It's done quietly."
In a lengthy exploration of the point at hand with Off The Ball, you can listen back to Jonathan Walters' interview in full here.
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