LFC snub Luton Town request for gate receipts?

Anyone else been following this story?

(Note to Liverpool fans: I'm in no way claiming that this story's true. If a cheque is winging its way to Luton as we speak, then full credit to LFC officials.)

If the reports are true, Liverpool are bang out of order. £100,000 wouldn't even cover Gerrard or Torres' wages for one week, whereas Luton Town's players (ordinary people with bills to pay like you or I as opposed to multi millionaires with no grasp of reality) haven't been paid for 9 weeks and are, in some cases, facing the very grim and very real prospect of poverty.

Would it really be such a big ask for them to hand over their poxy third of the gate receipts, just like they did when they played TNS in the Champions' League or like Chelsea did to Scarborough? I can't help but feel that, if they had an English chairman, they would have avoided this nasty faux pas. Say what you like about Abramovich, but at least he has a knowledge of English football culture.

To be fair though, the resulting bad press and subsequent lack of goodwill towards Liverpool could end up costing them a lot more than £100,000 in other ways.

"Unwritten rules" do exist though, and LFC have most definitely broken one here.

True, football is a business and, to look at it from that angle, the fallout from all this could cost the club more than £100,000 in negative PR and such.

Does anyone remember the Sheffield United - Arsenal incident back in '98 or '99 (IIRC) where Sheff U put the ball out as one of their players was injured. They clearly expected to get the ball back from the resulting throw but, instead, Kanu gave it to Overmars who crossed it back to Kanu to score, all while the Blades players looked on incredulously. That was a clear case of foreigners failing to comply with an "unwritten rule" of English football and the negative PR ended up forcing Arsenal to replay the match, even though they won the original tie 2-1.

I wouldn't be surprised if Gillette and Hicks wind up eating a similar amount of humble pie after this debacle.  

EDIT: in response to Substance's post. You've got a fairly unrealistic view of the financial situation of Luton's players. True, some of them will be earning a decent wage but a lot of the younger/much older players will be earning very little indeed. Not to mention the fact that footballers generally have no qualifications and have to retire from the professional game at 35/36 at the latest, so need to make hay while the sun shines.

And anyway, you try not getting paid for 9 weeks' work and see how you feel at the end of it.

Quote: Lemony_Zester

I also don't like the fact that Liverpool have almost been blackmailed into this, ala the footballers donating their day's wages thingy that went on last year.  

This is all irrelevant anyway - by Liverpool being typically dreadful today, Luton have got a replay back at Anfield - and they'll get 15% of that gate...so Liverpool have done them a massive favour.

Also, Liverpool make friendly matches with Wrexham and Crewe Alexandra every season, but they do not keep any of the money at-all.

:-[