There were many column inches telling us that the Arsenal players had refused to accept the 12.5% paycut for the season, as outlined in the proposals put out by the Board, of which the five main points (as reported by the Daily Mirror) were….
* A 12.5 per cent pay cut for 12 months from April 2020 to March 2021
* The full amount is then refunded if Arsenal qualify for the Champions League
* If Arsenal do not qualify for the Champions League, no money is returned back
* If Arsenal fail to qualify for the Champions League, but qualify for the Europa League the cut becomes 7.5 per cent
* If the season does not finish and/or Arsenal does not get full money from broadcasters then they will ask the Arsenal players to find a “further solution”.
Now it seems that the players ARE going to agree to all these points, but with added incentives of:
* Their money back if they qualify for Europe either this season or the next.
* A 100,000 GBP bonus if they win the Europa League, and…
* A 500,000 bonus if they win the Champions League.
That last one is a bit far-fetched, to say the least, and the club could cover that by putting a fiver on with the bookies, as they would probably offer 1000/1 on that happening anyway!
Winning the Europa League is a bit more possible, but it would still take some massive improvement, and they would have to actually qualify for it in the first place!
But, the fact is that the players initially voted against this package, and I must stress that the paycut has not yet actually been agreed, it is just being reported that they are close to an agreement, so I would say: don’t count your chickens just yet…