There have been reports from other big European clubs ever since this crisis began that the highly paid players have immediately accepted swingeing wage cuts, with Barcelona going as far as a 70% reduction, as announced by Lionel Messi on Instagram.
Part of his statement read (as translated by AS): “For our part, the moment has arrived to say that the cut will be 70% of our wage during the state of alarm. We will also help out the club in order for the workers to be paid 100% of their wages.
If we didn’t speak until now, it’s because the priority was to to find solutions to help the club and to see who the most affected were during this situation.
We don’t want to sign off without giving a massive salute and our strength to all of the cules who are going through a bad moment in these difficult times and those waiting patiently in their homes until this crisis is over. Soon, we will come out on the other side of this and we will all join together.”
This was announced by Messi on March 30th, and many other clubs followed suit, but two weeks later we are now hearing that yesterday afternoon Arsenal’s stars have rejected a plan that would see them lose a maximum of 12.5% of their wages, or even less if they qualify for Europe. You can read about Arsenal’s proposed plan here..
The report in the Star says that the offer was rejected unanimously “due to doubts over the summer transfer window”, whatever that may mean….
So, as Hector Bellerin is the players representative, I think it is high time that he released a statement telling us their thoughts and reasons for rejecting the small cut. If we don’t hear from them soon, there could be growing resentment amongst fans and the general public.
