Players’ Association President Damiano Tommasi insists cutting wages is “not a priority” right now, but rather a protocol for returning to duty and dealing with contracts if the season goes beyond June 30.
The Lega Serie A and AIC (Players’ Association) are discussing the idea of cutting salaries during the coronavirus lockdown, as Juventus and reportedly also Inter have already agreed to forego some of their wages.
Players’ Association President Damiano Tommasi insists cutting wages is “not a priority” right now, but rather a protocol for returning to duty and dealing with contracts if the season goes beyond June 30.
The Lega Serie A and AIC (Players’ Association) are discussing the idea of cutting salaries during the coronavirus lockdown, as Juventus and reportedly also Inter have already agreed to forego some of their wages.
Today, Atletico Madrid announced their players had accepted a 70 per cent wage cut in order to ensure the non-playing members of staff were paid during this period.
There are more problems to be considered, as if the Serie A season does resume on or after May 20, it means they could be playing after contracts expire on June 30.
“In order to play into the summer, we’d have to change the rules around the contracts,” pointed out Tommasi on Radio Kiss Kiss. “It has to be done collectively, because otherwise there will be different regulations from country to country.
“However, before all of that, we first and foremost be prudent on a medical level. We are monitoring the situation, including with preventative protocols.
“As I already said, we need to be 100 per cent confident of player safety before returning to work. If there was a second wave of the pandemic, we’d suffer even worse consequences.
“Therefore, reducing wages is not a priority, but rather when and how we return to action. If the season ends here, then we can discuss collectively what to do with the remaining four months of the salaries.”
Clubs are trying to get players to suspend their wages for the months where football is not played, whereas the AIC are pushing to forego only one month.