News

Barber: It's our duty to support people who work for the club

Chief Executive Paul Barber says it is the club’s duty as a ‘leader in the community’ to try and support the hundreds of people who work for the club.

By Bruce Talbot • 04 April 2020

By Paul Hazlewood
Albion chief executive and deputy chairman Paul Barber.

Along with head coach Graham Potter and Director of Football Dan Ashworth, Barber has taken a pay cut for the next three months to ease the financial burden on club owner Tony Bloom during the coronavirus crisis.

He said, “I can’t talk for the whole football industry or for clubs which have made decisions already.

"All I can say is our priority is to try to ensure that our club continues to be a significant business in the community including our charitable arm Albion in the Community, which does hugely good work locally.

“There have been a series of measures announced about what we can do as a football club, but also as a leader in this community to try to support people at a very difficult time.

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Barber & Potter press conference

“We employ hundreds and hundreds of people. Indirectly, 2,500 people rely on us for employment in this area so it is absolutely incumbent on us for us to do everything we possibly can to keep this business going and to ensure our staff continue to be paid.

“Graham, Dan and I are the visible faces of the club, along with the chairman, and we wanted to make a small gesture to help Tony through a difficult time.

"Hopefully it will enable us to protect as many jobs within our club as we can and support the chairman’s efforts to keep paying everyone for as long as we can.”