Whilst I may agree with your sentiments your maths is way out - the top tax rate is 45% - the club pays an additional 13.8% in NI contributions and players pay 2% NI on income over the upper NI limit. A total of over 60% of headline income.
Using your simple sums the treasury would lose out by...
IF any pay cut accepted by players could be ring fenced to ensure that other staff were paid in full without tax payers assistance and weren’t used to support the P&L of the club then it wouldn’t be a “tough choice”.
What I haven’t seen taken into account, if players take a pay cut, is the effect on the total tax take by HMRC.
If players take a 30% pay cut then that will be a hefty reduction in the amount of tax they are paying and in addition the players will have no control over how the money saved by the...