City chief: Wage cuts will be up to the PFA and EFL
COVENTRY City’s groundshare landlords Birmingham City this week become the first Championship club to ask their players to take wage deferrals amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Players earning more than £6,000 a week at St Andrew’s have been asked to take a 50 per cent cut in their salary for the next four months, it is understood.
The money will be paid back in stages when the season restarts, with English football postponed until April 30 at the earliest to try to combat the spread of the virus.
One of Coventry’s League One promotion rivals believes it may be “sensible” for players to take a wage cut if the football lay-off goes on for longer than currently expected.
Peterborough United chairman Darragh Macanthony estimates his club stand to lose hundreds of thousands of pounds of revenue from matchday ticket sales amid the current suspension of fixtures which currently stands at seven weeks, having been extended from an initial three week shutdown.
Sky Blues chief executive Dave Boddy agrees with those guesstimates but says City will not be asking their players to take a pay cut.
“It’s not one for an individual club or something that we could impose,” he said.
“It’s something more to do with the Premier League and English Football League (EFL), but the Professional Footballers’
Association will drive that if it happens. We would effectively be breaking their contracts if we did it, so there’s nothing we could do. It would have to be EFL/PFA led.”
A meeting to discuss the financial impact of the pandemic-enforced suspension of action on professional football in England will take place today.
It is understood cost-cutting measures due to lost revenue are even being considered at Premier League level.
In the Championship, Leeds confirmed yesterday that their players, management and senior staff have volunteered to defer their wages for the foreseeable future so that all non-football staff can be paid during the sport’s shutdown.
On Wednesday afternoon the Professional Footballers’ Association called for an urgent meeting with the Premier League and the EFL to discuss a way through the crisis.
It is understood talks have already taken place between the union and the two competitions prior to today, and that this will be a continuation of those discussions.
Last week the EFL released a £50 million package to help its clubs manage cash flow issues caused by the suspension in action.
Initial conversations are understood to have taken place between the Premier League, the Football Association, the EFL and Government regarding support for the lower leagues.
However, it is unclear what support Premier League clubs might be able to offer.