‘Disgust’ and revolt over cuts
contention is that some clubs are going directly to players, asking them to renegotiate contracts – and trying to convince them to sign up.
Mirror Sport has been told one club with wealthy owners has asked all players to cut their salary by 10 per cent over the entire length of their contracts, while another suggested players reduce their wages by 50 per cent during the crisis.
The Premier League are adamant the limit for cuts and deferrals is 30 per cent over a maximum of 12 months, to be reviewed on a monthly basis, which was agreed by the 20 clubs on Friday.
It is understood there is now a commitment from every chief executive and chairman to agree to the same cuts. One club executive told Mirror Sport: “Not every club is owned by a billionaire and, if they don’t accept some sort of compromise, clubs will go bust. It’s as simple as that.”
But there is genuine anger among the captains, and frustration they are being painted as the bad guys, when the reality is they are fully committed to setting up their own charity foundation.
They have also seen clubs like Liverpool and Tottenham, who make huge profits, furlough staff.
The Premier League captains were told the scale of the financial crisis during a video conference call on Saturday. The brutal reality was spelled out with clubs expected to lose up to £1.1billion, including £762million in TV cash. annoyed the stars is how this has come about with clubs approaching players privately to try to force them into taking pay cuts and deferrals.
One club with wealthy owners has asked every player to cut their salary by 10 per cent over the entire length of their contract – while another suggested players reduce their wages by 50 per cent during these traumatic times.
The timing of Liverpool’s announcement that they were putting staff on the Government’s furlough scheme could not have been worse.
This from a club which recorded a pre-tax profit