Blow to wages at Barça due to the coronavirus: the directive’s proposal has divided the dressing room

There is not only a health and social impact in the crisis generated by the coronavirus, it also means a very negative event at the economic level and especially in the football and sports industry in general. The FC Barcelona It is one of the clubs that has already launched its plans to deal with this situation, with a significant reduction in salary for players.

The Spanish press reported that the board of the Barça club – which is beginning to feel the lack of income due to the closure of the Museum, the shops, the sponsored schools, and also without the sale of tickets or the exploitation of the VIP boxes at the Camp Nou – it raises a 70% reduction in the base salary of the first team footballers, without touching the prizes or the complements of each contract.

President Josep Maria Bartomeu, who leads the conversations with the dressing room, aspires to reach an agreement during these days with all the members of the professional staff. Already captains have been contacted to advance the details on this measure.

And although the talks are starting, there is already division in the locker room. "Within the group there is no uniformity of criteria to face this request of Bartomeu as a shock measure to alleviate the lack of income caused by the coronavirus ”, explains the Catalan newspaper SPORT.

This medium explains that "There are a part of the players who reject the club's proposal, who are against the application of this reduction and even the approach" because they believe that with proper resource management they should not be affected. Then he highlights that "There are other parts of the dressing room players, with specific weight within the group, who consider that the club's proposal is acceptable and must be taken into consideration"that is, they have a better predisposition to make this temporary salary reduction.

The third group tries to listen "What the Spanish Footballers Association (AFE) says" which should work in conjunction with The league for the resumption or not of the championship, and that would include some collective salary drops depending on the outcome.

Is that what players salaries like Messi, Griezmann, Arturo Vidal, De Jong and company suppose more than 60% of the culé institution's budget. Anyway it will be a measure applied to all professional Barça teams, that is, men's and women's soccer, basketball, handball, hockey and futsal.

In SPORT they also report that the discounts would apply while the state of alarm decreed by the Spanish Government lasts, set for the time being until April 11. Although in case the competitions are permanently canceled this season, they would be paid in full.