Yesterday, Arsenal confirmed that matchday and non-matchday casual workers will continue to be paid to ease their financial concerns during this challenging period.
For the moment, they’ve guaranteed payment until 30 April and they’ve promised to revisit the situation when football is inevitably postponed even further.
Today, the club has also gone public on a number of other initiatives to support communities in and around N5 and those farther afield to whom we already have charitable responsibilities.
£100,000 has been donated to local charities and organisations to support Islington’s most vulnerable during the coronavirus pandemic. A further £50,000, already donated by the Arsenal Foundation, will be redirected specifically to Islington Giving’s Crisis Fund.
With restrictions on movement now in place in the UK, all Arsenal in the Community cars have been made available to transport frontline NHS mental health workers. They are being driven on a voluntary basis to help NHS workers deliver medication and emergency supplies.
Plans are also being drawn up to create new digital resources to help local school kids continue to learn while stuck at home. Tutors associated with the club are also continuing to deliver classes remotely.
Arsenal’s Coaching For Life programmes in Jakarta, Indonesia and at the Za’atari Refugee Camp, Jordan – both run in conjunction with Save the Children – have also been affected. For the time being, Gunners coaches will work remotely with local coaches.
Given how fast-moving and disruptive this situation has been, the above action is very welcome. Of course, as this situation drags out even further, the onus will be on the club to keep setting a positive example.
The football community is set to lose a lot of money as a result of the coronavirus outbreak, it should do its utmost not to lose the respect of its punters along the way.
Class is permanent
So unrelated, BUT that Cesc podcast brought tears to my eyes. Thanx blogs, amazing work. Cesc will be back one day with Santi and Mikel. ?
Him and RVP both were expected to be legends. Legends are remembered more for their service than their medals . Don’t condone booing Cesc though, always been dignified, and respectful to the club and fans. RVP can suck his PL medal, no one will remember he played and won one in a few more years, him and Adebayor are no different for me, booo the phukers
I envy the parents of Adebayor, because his father has a job where he can work with animals. That has always been my dream as well. And his mother works closely with people. I heard that in a song about him years ago.
You find it funny? Replacing Adebayor by your name would be more appropriate if you do.
One of the best Arsecasts I recall. It really hurt when Cesc left, but after a while I saw him differently and understand the chance to nail down some medals in Spain.
Sadly I cannot like RVP though; it still feels like he cleared off after the club supported him through years of poor performance and injury.
Totally agree Karl.No hate for cesc from me.Just seen a fellow fan on his Twitter account posting a survey cesc or Ozil who would you prefer.Do me a favour.Ozil couldn’t lace cesc boots.Lets face it when he realized we wouldn’t sign Alonso even when he was desperate to join Arsenal he realized it was time to go.
This is just the reason I love this club so much…. Well of of the reasons.
I love this club, acting with class and dignity as always.
A little idea as an initiative just for Arsenal FC. Insist that Saka self isolates with Edu, a contract and a fountain pen.
It would be great if some of the better paid players and staff would forgo their salary so that the funds could be used towards the many people who work at AFC.
Always admired how Arsenal tends to lead the community off the field. Rare these days, but the Arsenal clubs values arent just words, they are genuine.
https://twitter.com/clivebullen/status/1212649309616910336?s=20
we have people close to hand that have only won two League Cups in 29 seasons, see the direction of their trophies via the link above, we should reach out and express our sympathy in these hard times.
More than just a football club
100k is nothing when mutiple individuals in sport (Pep, Federer) have donated 1m. Surely we can do better than this.
Its not nothing. But we can definitely do better
Bill Gates has given £85m. If only we had a billionaire owner that would spend some money.
I’ve only just heard the Cesc interview and loved it. I have absolutely no animosity toward him: he did the right things for his career and clearly still loves Arsenal. I was very interested the part when he explained that it was Arsenal that didn’t want to sign him when he wanted to come back; you can’t blame him for signing for the chavs after that. I would have loved him to name those players whose attitudes stank. I’ve got a pretty good guess who they are, but now that Cesc has left England he could have confirmed it. Wenger’s… Read more »
Great blog.I endorse everything you said about cesc yet there are still fans saying Ozil is better.WOW.