Football: Majority of remaining non-playing staff furloughed

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Rochdale AFC has announced that the vast majority of non-playing staff have now been furloughed (in addition to those already furloughed last month) which will result in online orders placed with the club shop not being processed and the club social media channels being unmanned.

All forthcoming football matches were cancelled by the EFL in March due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Some non-playing staff were furloughed in March and the players, management and coaching staff were furloughed last month.

In a statement, the board said: “As all of you would imagine, the responsibility of the board of directors of this wonderful 113-year-old football club comes with a realisation that we are just the current custodians of this club and everything we do is geared to ensure that the club will maintain its solvency, its reputation and its ability to survive problems.

“Given that the club is potentially facing a situation where no paying fans will enter the Crown Oil Arena until 2021, we have to be ever mindful of protecting our long-term financial future. The board have a clear plan to get the club through this terrible pandemic in order to remain intact as a football club so that we may celebrate our 100th year as a football league club in August 2021.

“As a result of this, in the last 24 hours, the club has furloughed the vast majority of non-playing staff that had previously not been in this situation and senior management have taken a 50% pay cut.

“As a result of these actions, we will now only be providing media updates on a once a weekly basis and our social media channels will remain unmanned at all other times. We thank you for your understanding. We will aim to provide information regarding club and EFL matters through our weekly updates.

“In addition, online club shop orders will no longer be able to be processed. The online shop will close with immediate effect.

“The board of directors wish to thank all of the club’s magnificent staff for their support and understanding of the current situation.

“To you, the supporters, wherever you are in the world, please stay safe and follow government guidelines.”