Gary Neville reveals Hotel Football spent £3m hosting NHS staff for free during pandemic

The business paid out an eye-watering £3m over the course of two years

Hotel Football, the business venture run by Gary Neville and his former Manchester United teammate Ryan Giggs, has spent over £3 million in the past two years hosting NHS staff. Two hotels, both in Manchester, closed to the public in March 2020 and were made available to health workers who were not able to live with their families during the covid pandemic, free of charge. Former England footballer Neville spoke out on Saturday after several media outlets reported that Hotel Football had lost a staggering £3m in two years and owes £10m in loans. Many of the reports failed to mention just how much Neville and Giggs did during the pandemic to support their staff and the country's medical staff. https://twitter.com/GNev2/status/1566017220278423553?s=20&t=-fLsTLmuTOPi7osYni8gYA

'We looked after the local NHS staff' - Gary Neville

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." [caption id="attachment_356813" align="alignnone" width="1024"] The luxurious hotel hosted 120 health workers during the pandemic (Credit: The Stock Exchange hotel)[/caption]

Gary Neville: We wanted to offer some support

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=-fLsTLmuTOPi7osYni8gYA

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