Hotel Football spent £3m hosting NHS staff for free during the pandemic
Gary Neville had the perfect response to
reports that his hotel is in debt and losing millions of pounds a year.
The former
Manchester United defender, who co-owns Hotel Football with
Ryan Giggs, responded to
Mirror reports that the property is in financial trouble.
Company accounts show his hospitality company lost £3.2 million over the last two years and owes more than £10 million in loans.
Neville started the business with Giggs back in 2011 after retiring from football. Now annual accounts for the business - which were filed this week - show the hotel, which is based near Manchester United's Old Trafford ground, lost heaps of cash in 2020 and 2021 after suffering from the Covid pandemic.
But many of the reports failed to mention just how much the former Manchester United duo did during the pandemic to support their staff and the country's medical staff.
https://twitter.com/GNev2/status/1566017220278423553?s=20&t=EwhXaaGaOPBMbOhjS4QPqw
Speaking to PoliticsJOE Neville said: "We funded the £3m over 2 years with either our own cash or loans and paid our staff in full.
"We also looked after the NHS staff locally that couldn’t stay at home in the first wave of the pandemic."
The luxurious Stock Exchange Hotel in Manchester had been open only five months before it closed its doors, shortly after being named one of the World's Best New Luxury Hotels for 2020.
"We look after our teams and we wanted to offer some support at a worrying time for everyone," said Neville.
"We’d also seen in Italy that doctors and nurses were struggling to find accommodation away from vulnerable family members, so we partnered with the Manchester NHS foundation trust.
"We were the first to do it and we were pretty full for the whole first wave in Hotel Football and had 25-30 in the Stock Exchange hotel."
Writing on twitter, Cystic Fibrosis physiotherapist Nicole Petch said she had been one of the staff hosted in Hotel Football during the pandemic.
"I stayed at Hotel Football during the first wave of the pandemic," she said. "Thank you so much for your kindness, generosity & allowing me to keep my family safe."
https://twitter.com/petchphysio/status/1566020221835558913?s=20&t=na5jT3pHByzcIcQwzpAwSg
Others pointed out that it was quite usual for businesses to have loans and, indeed, to have incurred debt over the pandemic, which wreaked havoc on the economy.
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