Serie A teams ask the Italian Football Association to loosen the deadlines to pay the wages and want the players to renounce to two monthly salaries. The matter will be discussed in a federal council later today, which should agree to the first request. Instead, it can not rule on the second matter, which requires a private agreement between the parties, Repubblica reports.
The Players’ Association has already rebuffed the proposal, as the contracts are not collective. Moreover, ten clubs have already paid, so it would create a disparity. The postponement of the deadlines will not be as substantial as urged, it could be pushed by a month or two, but still before the start of next season, La Gazzetta dello Sport informs.
The request was suggested by Inter, Genoa, Sampdoria, Crotone, Cagliari and Benevento in the last Serie A meeting and approved unanimously. Multiples sides are worried they will not have enough liquidity to register for the next campaign and risk being penalized or outright excluded.
Italian outfits currently dole out €1.25B in wages per year, which is more than the €1.13B they will get annually from TV rights. The cut would allow them to save €200M, but there is major skepticism it could be imposed by the Federation. Some sides managed to negotiate it with their players during last Spring’s stoppage. The proponents point out that footballers are the only employees in the Peninsula unaffected by the pandemic-related economic crisis and that the industry, differently from most businesses, has not received any subsidy from the government in the past year.