EVERTON PLAYERS TAKE 50% WAGE CUT TO SAVE £10m

EVERTON’S squad have voluntarily taken 50 per cent pay deferrals for the next three months to protect the club’s long-term finances.

In an email to supporters sent out last night, Everton chief executive Denise Barrett- Baxendale explained the process behind the decision and revealed that talks with the players have been on-going since the coronavirus pandemic shut football down.

Everton manager Carlo Ancelotti, thought to earn around £9million a year, and the rest of his staff agreed in March to take 30 per cent reductions in their salaries, as did other leading figures within the club such as director of football Marcel Brands and Barrett-Baxendale.

Long- serving players such as captain Seamus Coleman and Leighton Baines, among others, have been working with club officials to see what the squad could do to combat the effects of losing so much revenue for such a prolonged period of time.

It is estimated that the wage deferrals from the playing staff alone will save Everton £10million.

Barrett- Baxendale wrote: ‘Although we now have more precise details of the coronavirus crisis, we have known for some weeks that the impact would be significant and we have taken steps wherever possible to mitigate this impact.

‘As a sign of the spirit and togetherness we have as a club, I can confirm that as soon as we closed our stadium in March, our players, coaching staff, board and executive leadership team, along with other senior personnel, expressed their desire to protect the club.

‘The board of directors, together with the manager and the nine members of his backroom staff, volunteered to reductions and deferrals of up to 30 per cent. That willingness was there to protect the club, other staff, our fans and the wider community.

‘The first-team squad have now voluntarily agreed to deferrals of up to 50 per cent for the next three months.

‘Everyone who has taken these reductions and deferrals has done so in the spirit of the club and I would like to express my thanks to them for demonstrating such integrity.’

Everton have been proactive during the pandemic in supporting the vulnerable members of their support base. The club set up the Blue Family appeal, which has seen Ancelotti and all of his players ringing Everton fans for long chats over the telephone.

The initiative has raised £400,000 in donations so far and now major shareholder Farhad Moshiri and chairman Bill Kenwright — who has also taken time to ring fans -— have pledged to match that figure, so the total raised is in the region of £800,000.