SWEET F.A.

By Dan Wootton

STINGY Chelsea?one of the richest footie clubs in the world ? REFUSED to help hard-up nurses.

Despite earning a whopping ?114 million in wages last season, not a SINGLE player parted with just a day's mega pay for the May Day For Nurses campaign.

Even England skipper John Terry? who earns over ?100,000 a WEEK?kept his wallet shut. Of all the 556 Premiership players asked to help with the scheme, only 225 contributed.

The campaign has raised ?750,000 for a hardship fund to help poorly paid nurses if they get into financial trouble.

And it could have been more but the league's other rich clubs were just as bad as tight-fisted Chelski, owned by billionaire Roman Abramovich.

Despite helping launch the appeal, Man United champions Ryan Giggs and Gary Neville failed to persuade any other teammates to shell out.

Another campaign supporter, Arsenal striker Thierry Henry, only managed to get two other Gooners on board.

Scousers Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher parted with cash along with ten other Liverpool players.

But the biggest Premiership hearts belong to Fulham, Reading, West Ham and relegated Watford who made their ENTIRE squads donate a day's pay.

A basic grade nurse earns just ?19k a year?next season Premiership wages will break the ?1billion barrier.

Campaign founder Noreena Hertz said: "I simply can't explain the lack of generosity. It's not too late?Chelsea players can still approach me."

CATCH The Million Pound Footballers' Giveaway on C4, Thursday, 9pm.

http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/story_p ... ort3.shtml

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Looks like a rant from a website but this is from todays NOTW. Look at JT's wages a WEEK or use of the word Chelski. It really is quite poor even for the NOTW to have such shoddy journalism on show.

So they you go, our players are anti-charity, tight with money, hate the nurses and of course those good 'ol scousers of murder.FC. donated loads.

And Jose eats dogs for breakfast and his players drink the blood of human sacrifices after every match.

They are bad evil men the lot of them who deserve to roast in the pit of hellfire and damnation for all enternity.

I really must get a job with the NOTW, it's my true calling.

What a load of rubbish.

First half of the article is about the cheap ba*tards Chelski who earns billions every minute but still won't do some charity (or whatever you wanna call it).

The rest of the article quickly mention that very few of the ManU and Arsenal players gave money and that 12 scousers gave money. Especially those Gods Gerrard and Carragher. What absolutely lovely guys those are

Why not mention all the other charity work Chelsea does. I've got a feeling we do quite alot. But miss one thing and we're the worse f*cks of the universe.

This is why I don't buy newspapers anymore. They are not even fit to whipe my hairy swedish a*se

The fact that JM and Essien are out doing good work in Ghana - or JM and Roman have done charity work in Israel - or even the great work and masses raised for kids cancer charity Clic Sargent is all lost.

Unfortunately lots of people will now believe this and hate us for it.

My late mum was a nurse her whole life, and my sis is a nurse too. Very noble profession and a damn good cause!

Complete pile of sh*te , id like to know the real story behind that .

Agree with Brain M, for years they've been fighting a lost cause here with the government for better pay , better hours and better working conditions . I fully support any campaign they are involved in and will continue to do so.

Love how they focus on us not donating any money, when half the other clubs in the Premiership didn't do the same.

Quality journalism as always

check on the site for the charity, and it says chelsea - club made contribution. so, strange how it wasnt mentioned in the notw.... tossers.

I checked on the Nurses Fund website and it says 0 players but the Club made a contribution. It doesn't say how much it is, but of course it could be much more than an individual players contribution. Whatever.

I imagine that Chelsea like all big organisations and celebrities are constantly asked to contribute towards a vast number of charities and good causes. I also know that they do an awful lot for charity, but not everybody can give to every charity there is. Also, the purpose of this fund is not necessarily a registered charity, the idea behind it is to raise the profile of nurses and the idea of footballers giving a day's wage is the hook they're using. Is it outrageous that a nurse earns X and a footballer earns X x ?00000 - yes of course it is.

I don't think anyone could dispute that nurses do a fantastic job and should be paid a lot more and should be more respected within society. However, those who choose to go into nursing do that, they make a choice. Hospital cleaners, likewise do a good job, are essential to the well being of patients and I bet they would be very happy to be paid as much as nurses. But they aren't and that's life. I imagine there aren't many people who don't think that footballers are paid way too much and compared to the rest of us mere mortals it's not fair, but it too is life.

If you looked at a nurses wage in the Ivory Coast, or in Ghana I dare say they could only dream of being paid as much as a nurse in the UK, but I think it may present a dilemma for some of our players to make such a contribution. England players did play for nothing for a recent game (I'm not sure which one), and gave their fee to the fund, so that means JT, FL and possibly SWP made a contribution.

This article, like so many in our crap-awful press, is just bilge, written by an idiot for an idiot audience. The thing that impresses me about Chelsea is what they do for charity, not what they don't do. I think I've mentioned previously, there was a young lad, a massive Chelsea fan, near where I live, dying of cancer, his MacMillan nurse contacted Chelsea and in return he received a visit from a player (I don't know which one because she couldn't remember his name got a signed football, lots of things from the club including a shirt, which he was buried in. This boy was delighted. There was no media coverage, I live 3 hours drive from London, on what is a pig of a journey, nobody knew about it but this boy and his family and MacMillan locally and it made his life. He died not long after and he said before he died it was the best thing that had ever happened to him. That kind of selfless kind of charitable act is what impresses me, not something that's just for the sake of a television programme, however good the cause.

What annoyed me about that article is that a lot of other clubs also did not respond that well but the lead in is all about Chelsea.

Bottom line, all these clubs must get tons of requests to donate just like big businesses do. Some have their own group of charities they support, players also.

Just now Jose is in Ghana in his spare time and Chelsea financially get nothing frankly from doing this but the pride that they are contributing to something important, yes the PR is good but what other top coach is doing this only a few days after the end of the season? Most are sunning themselves on a beach somewhere enjoying some hard earned rest.

So the reporting is bad, the cause is good but I don't think you can have a go at any club or player who decides for whatever reason not to support a particular charity.

There are 2 aspects to this, one is the reporting and therefore the publics perception of Chelsea and the second is the nurses.

Firstly, in my experience so far, most people seem to sympathise with Chelsea players and don't think they've done anything wrong in exercising their right to donate to charities of their own choosing rather than one they being brow beaten into. There will always be the odd moron who chooses to believe the worst and condemn the players no matter what the issue so I'm starting to not care about this.

Secondly, this perception that all nurses are angels and deserve sainthood needs quashing. I have had years of experience of hospital (as have a few of you on here) and my experience has been varied. One thing is certain, some nurses are great but unfortunately there are more that are lazy and unprofessional working on every ward. I'm sure when it comes to specialist nursing that the numbers of unprofessionals are much lower but frankly the majority in general nursing aren't all that. My wife entirely agrees so it must be true. Did I mention I married my nurse?

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