Gary Neville has fired back after the Mirror’s football column published an article detailing how his hotel had lost £3 million over the course of the pandemic.
The outlet shared the piece on Twitter with the caption: “Ryan Giggs and Gary Neville’s Hotel Football loses £3m in two years and owes £10m in loans”.
Quote tweeting them just a few hours later, the Manchester United legend turned pundit quickly responded with a revised headline for them. Can’t lie, we prefer his…
Can i just sort your headline out for you 👇🏻
‘ Hotel owners maintain and pay all staff 100% of their wages in a global pandemic , whilst also hosting 120 medical professionals and nurses , who were sheltering from vulnerable family members at no cost to the NHS for 9 months’ https://t.co/5a9cUOQ8EA
As he explains in less than 280 characters, the reason why the business took such a financial hit – beyond the unavoidable obstacles of the pandemic itself – is that they paid staff ‘100% of their wages’ and also hosted ‘120 medical professionals and nurses’.
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In case the news passed you by at the time, back in March 2020 the hotel announced that they would provide Covid-secure housing for NHS staff sheltering from vulnerable family members at absolutely no cost for at least nine months.
Sharing the following video when furlough was rolled out across the UK, Neville announced that the business owners would be putting up hundreds of frontline workers in Old Trafford’s Hotel Football and the Stock Exchange hotel, located in Manchester’s City Centre.
Neville and Giggs bought the Stock Exchange under the banner of their GG Hospitality Group in 2013 and opened Hotel Football two years later, along with the help of brother Phil and fellow Class of ‘92 members, Paul Scholes and Nicky Butt.
In the financial documents first viewed by the Daily Star, the company are said to have £1,148,879 in 2021 and even more in 2020: £2,042,812.
They are even said to have pulled money National Museum of Football, as well as taking out loans totalling £10.2m from the firm’s parent company to keep everything ticking over.
Nevertheless and even with rising inflation during and post-Covid, Neville insisted: “The directors have continued their policy of investing in the hotel to improve operational performance and to promote the Hotel Football brand”.
All that while providing a vital lifeline for key workers. Hero.
Featured image: Sky
Sport
Details released of Andy Burnham’s meetings with Manchester City owners while Mayor
Emily Sergeant
Details of Andy Burnham’s meetings with Manchester City owners during his tenure as Mayor of Greater Manchester have been released.
In case you need bringing up to speed on the situation a little first, Manchester City was found guilty back in September all of its charges related to the Premier League’s financial rules over a nine-season period, and on top of that, was also found guilty of the majority of charges in relation to its failure to co-operate with the League’s investigation.
According to the Premier League, the independent Commission found that Manchester City had arranged so-called ‘sham’ commercial deals with a number of its sponsors.
These were part of a disguised funding scheme – with those sponsors only required to pay a portion of the relevant sponsorship fees.
The remainder was then funded by Abu Dhabi United Group Investment & Development Ltd (ADUG), which owned the club.
The Commission also concluded, as quoted by the Premier League, that the club had ‘made concerted efforts to stop and frustrate the Premier League investigation’.
Within the past week or so, it has since come to light that now-Prime Minister Andy Burnham had dealings with Manchester City during his tenure as Greater Manchester Mayor, and Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) has now issued a public statement, giving details on the matter and what these ‘dealings’ entailed.
A spokesperson for GMCA confirmed that Burnham had a ‘formal meeting’ with Man City Chairman, Khaldoon Al Mubarak, back in October 2021.
The statement reads in full: “In October 2021, Andy Burnham, in his role as Mayor of Greater Manchester, had a formal meeting with Khaldoon Al Mubarak at the UK Government’s Global Investment Summit arranged by the Department for International Trade.
“In his capacity as Mayor, he was a guest of Manchester City FC at home matches on a small number of occasions, including attending Vincent Kompany’s testimonial match in September 2019, where he met the Chairman informally in the stands. These have been declared in the usual way.
“Also during his time as Mayor, representatives of Greater Manchester sporting clubs would routinely join business delegations as part of Mayoral international visits.
“This included representatives from Manchester United travelling to Austin and Dublin, Lancashire Cricket Club joining a delegation to India, and Manchester City FC staff supporting visits to China and Japan.”
Featured Image – Lauren Hurley / Number 10 Downing Street (Press Image via Flickr)
Sport
Multiple arrests made for ‘tragedy chanting’ and police officer assault as Man City defeated Liverpool
Emily Sergeant
Multiple people were arrested over the weekend as Manchester City defeated Liverpool in a Premier League clash.
Merseyside Police have confirmed that a total of 10 people were arrested during the policing operation at Liverpool’s home ground of Anfield as they hosted Manchester City on Sunday 11 October.
One man was arrested on suspicion of assaulting a police constable, five were on suspicion of tragedy chanting, one on suspicion of being drunk and disorderly, two for affray, and one on suspicion of throwing items onto the pitch.
Police are now appealing to the public, and are particularly looking to speak to witnesses of the assault of the officer.
At around 6:35pm, as fans left the stadium, a police officer sustained a ‘serious facial injury’ during the arrest of a man on Anfield Road, and was subsequently taken to hospital for treatment but is now recovering at home.
Investigating officers are now conducting enquiries, speaking to witnesses, and analysing CCTV and camera phone footage.
Chief Inspector Leanne Hobin said it’s ‘extremely disappointing’ that an officer has sustained a serious injury while carrying out their duty.
“I hope the arrests send a clear message and act as a deterrent to others,” Chief Inspector Hobin continued. “Anyone who engages in this abhorrent behaviour risks ending up in custody and getting a criminal record.
“Despite the actions of a few, the overwhelming majority of the 60,000 fans in attendance behaved well and I want to thank them for their co-operation.”
Manchester City ended up defeated Liverpool 3-0 during the Premier League clash at Anfield.
Danny Jones -
6th September 2022 
