Barcelona cuts wages for squad and staff due to coronavirus crisis
Barcelona Football Club on Thursday announced that players and staff will have their contracts reduced – which will effectively slash wages – as part of measures to tackle the economic impact of the coronavirus crisis.
Spanish law allows companies to reduce or suspend contracts due to force majeure, with the current health crisis considered an exceptional circumstance.
“It is a reduction of the working day, imposed by the circumstances … and, as a consequence, the proportional reduction of the remuneration in the respective contracts,” Barcelona said in a statement outlining measures agreed by its board.
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“[The measures] are motivated by the need to adapt the contractual obligations of the club staff to the new and temporary circumstances that we are experiencing,” the statement added.
According to earlier reports in Spain, players and the club had failed to reach an agreement over a proposed pay cut to help deal with football in the country being indefinitely suspended from March 14.
Other La Liga clubs are expected to follow a similar path in the coming days.
Barcelona also announced that club facilities have been made available for the Catalan government’s health department to use as they see fit to help deal with the crisis, after Real Madrid did the same earlier on Thursday for their local government. (dpa)
