Arsenal confirm players and coaching staff have taken 12.5% wage cuts while coronavirus halts football… with squad able to earn the money back if they ‘meet specific targets on the pitch’
Arsenal players and manager Mikel Arteta have agreed to cut their wages by 12.5% to assist the club during the coronavirus pandemic.
Arteta’s staff have also taken a cut in their salary and the club have said they will pay everyone back if targets are met when the season resumes.
The club said in a statement: ‘The agreement is based on the assumption we will finish the season 2019/20 and receive the full broadcasting revenues.
Arsenal’s stars have accepted wage cuts of 12.5 per cent amid the Covid-19 crisis
‘The resulting savings will help cover some of the financial risks we have this season in relation to our matchday and commercial income.
‘We are proud and grateful to our players and staff for pulling together to support our club, our people and our community in these unprecedented times which are some of the most challenging we have faced in our history.
Despite the eye-watering financial implications of the coronavirus shutdown on football being well-documented, players at the majority of clubs are at an impasse with their clubs over cuts.
And that was precisely where Arsenal were last weekend when this proposal was initially rejected with the players only willing to settle for wage deferrals instead.
But opinions have shifted during a week that saw manager Arteta stress the importance of players doing their part to help the club and executives make their own sacrifices.
The factor of the Champions League proved important as well even though the Gunners haven’t played in Europe’s elite competition since the 2016-17 campaign.
The club is also offering them £500,000 each if they win the Champions League next season.
Arsenal sat ninth in the Premier League table when the league was suspended last month – after their own manager Arteta contracted the virus.
Should the league resume, Champions League football next season remains a possibility but may be considered unlikely.
Assuming that Manchester City’s ban from the competition is upheld, Arsenal would have to finish in fifth place, a position currently occupied by Manchester United, five points above them.
The Gunners have a game in hand but with Tottenham, Sheffield United, Wolverhampton Wanderers and United above them, and their recent winning momentum lost, it would still be a tall order.
