Barcelona to slash salaries due to COVID-19 losses
Spanish club, Barcelona is set to slash players, coaches and non-sporting staff salaries to adapt to the huge losses suffered due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
This was made known by a club source who said staff have been notified by the club of the need to reduce costs.
This was after the club posted a loss of 97 million euros (113.98 million dollars) in their annual financial report, which was released on Monday.
The employees, including players, have been asked to nominate a representative over the next two weeks to represent them in the negotiations over the changes to their salaries, added the source.
Barca have been forced to hold all home matches without spectators since the pandemic began in March, destroying revenue from ticket sales.
Income from merchandising and stadium and museum tours has also been badly affected by a huge drop in tourism to the city.
Barca’s accounts on Wednesday made for grim reading, showing a 14 per cent drop in revenue from the previous year and the doubling of their net debt to 488 million euros.
The club enacted a temporary pay cut of 70 per cent at the end of March in the height of the pandemic.
This lasted the duration of Spain’s national state of alarm, which ended in June.
