Atlético is going through a good sporting moment and looks strong to fight for LaLiga, a tournament in which neither Real Madrid nor Barcelona are dominating. The team was reinforced with Luis Suárez to make up for Morata's loss and the departure of Thomas in the last second left doubts about the team's performance. This start of the championship shows Atlético at the top, without losing any game in the league championship and with many options to overcome the group stage of the Champions League. And with a different style of play, with more prominence in attack.
The situation in the club, on the other hand, is similar to that of the other entities of Spanish and world football. The pandemic has caused a very significant reduction in income. In the case of Atlético it is 30 percent, So the crisis caused by COVID-19 has cost the Wanda Metropolitano club 115 million euros. A very important amount for an institution that has been growing season after season at all levels.
Atlético has been negotiating with its players a salary reduction to alleviate this lack of income. Last season the club and the squad agreed to a reduction of 9 percent and this 2020-21 season, it will be 10 percent. Leaders and staff have been talking about this reduction for a long time. The vast majority of the rojiblancos footballers have understood the situation the country is going through and football in particular. The negotiation has been individually. A large part of the staff has already signed that ten percent reduction, although not all players have done so yet.
At Atlético, however, they consider that practically everyone will join this initiative. The squad knows that the large financial outlay of the entity falls on it and it is the players who must take a step forward. The club will have a budget of 325 million this season and for the first time in many years it has been lower than last year. Atlético has also been catching up with the new situation after the pandemic and had to renegotiate many of the contracts with his sponsors.
Downward revision, which affected the club's accounts. Everything has been affected: shops, visits to the stadium, income from tickets … Little by little the club has adapted to what happened. And the players are not alien to the crisis either. That 10 percent reduction will clean up the accounts of a club that struggles to remain in the elite of European football.