AIC President Damiano Tommasi says Serie A’s proposal of cutting up to a third of wages “seems crazy to me”.
An agreement between clubs and players appeared to have been reached this afternoon, but it was immediately knocked back by the Italian players’ union, which called the plan a ‘disgrace’.
AIC President Damiano Tommasi says Serie A’s proposal of cutting up to a third of wages “seems crazy to me”.
An agreement between clubs and players appeared to have been reached this afternoon, but it was immediately knocked back by the Italian players’ union, which called the plan a ‘disgrace’.
“If the Serie A clubs have to meet at an assembly meeting to say they won’t pay wages when in reality, face to face with the players, individual clubs are looking for common-sense agreements, it’s very worrying,” added Tommasi in a statement on the AIC’s official website.
“I can’t understand the business logic behind this behaviour: putting the players, the main protagonists, in a bad light, when almost everyone else is already discussing with clubs how to get out of this crisis together. It seems crazy to me.”
The union, meanwhile, claimed to have been ‘left speechless’ by the Lega.
“The AIC Board of Directors, meeting today for their usual weekly meeting, which was followed by a meeting with the representatives of the Serie A teams, deemed the proposal put forward by Lega Serie A and B to be inadmissible.
“The behaviour of the leagues is incomprehensible at a time like this. The desire, not so much implied, of wanting to dump on the players, putting them in a bad light, the economic damage resulting from the crisis situation, is a fact that makes you reconsider the entrepreneurial credibility of those who should be ferrying the football system at this difficult time.
“To think that a resolution from an assembly meeting must be used to decide not to pay players any longer leaves us speechless.
“The same Presidents who would like a suspension of salaries sent their teams out to play until March 9, made them train until mid-March and still monitor and control individual training carried out according to the directives of their coaches.
“The discussion of the past few weeks focused on the contestation of remaining payments to be suspended or postponed, but it never went beyond short telephone calls.
“Now we understand why no agreement was sought on the technical changes to the Collective Agreement.
“The real intention [of clubs] is not to pay. It leaves us stunned, given that several teams are already sitting with their players, to discuss how to help each other at a time like this.”