Alex Song opens up on being sacked by Swiss club after refusing to take a pay cut

Alex Song has admitted that he is confused about being sacked by FC Sion over his failure to take a pay cut.

The former Arsenal midfielder is one of nine players that the Swiss club sacked as they looked to stay afloat during this coronavirus crisis.

The crisis has forced the Swiss top flight to be stopped since the start of the month, and clubs have naturally been struggling to meet their financial obligations.

FC Sion reportedly asked their players including Song to take a pay cut but he and some of his teammates refused and the club decided to rip up their contracts and fired them.

However, Song has opened up on his side of the story and claimed that he wasn’t clear about what exactly the club demanded of him.

He admitted to having been sent a document with information about the pay cut but said he never signed because he was only a footballer and had representatives who interpreted such documents for him.

The former Cameroon international told RMC Sport: “My lawyer will take care of it, let’s go to FIFA. We will defend our rights.

“We played a friendly on Friday (March 20) and we were supposed to meet with the president on Monday, then on Tuesday, we had no news.

“We received a WhatsApp message on Tuesday afternoon to tell us that everyone had to sign a paper telling us that our wages were being lowered, that we were going to be paid around €12,000.

“We were to return the paper the next day at noon. We received this document without explanation.”

In Song’s version of events, he claims he didn’t fully understand the implications of the document sent on the WhatsApp group.

The former Barcelona midfielder added: “I am a footballer, it is not my job.

“There are people to verify that (the document). I couldn’t sign it, we didn’t have any discussions.

“All the clubs are talking today, our captain didn’t know anything. We decided together not to sign this document. We wanted to talk.

“I did not make any professional misconduct. All the clubs talk to their players to find solutions, we do not understand what happened. No one can understand.” 

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