Serie A football club AS Roma players and their coaching staff agreed to go without four months pay cuts as football clubs face financial difficulties brought on due to the suspension of league games due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Since March 9 Serie A has been suspended due to COVID-19 outbreak and it is unknown to when or if it will resume the season, and with that Roma said in a statement on Sunday that players will forego four months without pay which is scheduled to end in June.
Roma said players are going to top up the wages of other workers of the club who were placed on the Italian government’s social safety net scheme to ensure they get their regular monthly salaries. Club management has also agreed to give out a certain percentage of their salaries.
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“We always talk about unity at Roma and in volunteering to cut their salaries for the rest of the season, the players, the coach, and his staff, have all proved that we really are in this together,” said chief executive Guido Fienga
“(Club captain) Edin Dzeko, all the players and (coach) Paulo Fonseca have demonstrated they understand what this stands for and we also thank them all for their superb gesture towards the employees at this club.”
Other clubs and their players (Juventus, Parma and Cagliari) have also agreed to the salary reduction method to help the clubs survive and maintain the welfare of their staff.
Serie A recommended that such cuts be made throughout all the top-ranking clubs but it got rejected by the players’ union which argued that those in smaller clubs can’t afford salary reductions.
AS Roma said that if the current season resumes and is completed, players have agreed on receiving an incentive-based plan, “subject to the achievement of certain sporting objectives.”
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According to the letter sent to Roma by players, they are ready to start playing as soon as possible but “we also realise that all this will not be enough to face the economic consequences of the current emergency.”
“With the hope of doing something that will help the company to better restart the Roma project that we all share, we offer this financial proposal.”
Article Accredited To: Mamorobela Lethabo
