28 April 2020

Reading become first Women's Super League club to furlough players

Reading have become the first Women's Super League team to furlough their players.

The club will pay the remaining 20 per cent of the wages as the Government scheme pays 80 per cent.

The players were informed last week alongside the men's U23 team and a large group of the club's backroom staff.

Reading's men are yet to come to an agreement on wage deferral, though other Championship clubs have agreed to a cut.

The news comes after the global union for professional players warned that women's football would take a financial hit and the game faced ‘concrete risks’.

Second in the WSL table Chelsea have been assured their players wouldn't be put on furlough. The club said in a statement:  "[We will] continue our current level of financial and other support to our professional women players and also to our women's academy programmes."

A handful of the WSL's top earners announced earlier this month they had donated to a scheme set up by the Premier League to help the NHS.

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