Barcelona Star Lionel Messi has confirmed that the players will take a 70% pay cut due to the coronavirus outbreak, MySportDab reports.
Messi also hit back at suggestions Barcelona players were being selfish and mean in their response to the coronavirus crisis, even blasted the club’s board and promised to take an extra pay-cut so everyone gets paid.
On Monday, Messi used his Instagram account to confirm that all Barcelona players WILL take a 70 per cent pay cut during Spain’s emergency situation.
This comes after Reports suggested that the club’s best-paid players were the only ones against the pay-cuts when announced last week.
And Captain Messi, speaking for a disgruntled squad suggested that certain members of the board tried to make the players look bad.
Messi wrote: ‘It never stops to surprise us that from within the club there were people who tried to put us under the bad eye, applying unnecessary pressure for us to do what we were going to do anyway.
‘Now, the fact we waited a few days was only because we were trying to figure out a formula that helps the club and its workers in such difficult situations.’
Spain remains under lockdown until April 11 with over 7,000 deaths from Covid-19, 1,410 of these deaths have been recorded in Catalonia.
MySportDab understands the La Liga season is currently on indefinite hold and Barcelona announced the board pay-cuts last week.
They announced without the official backing of the board and it was reported that the club’s first-team footballers were against the idea.
Messi added in the post on his Instagram account: “From our end, the moment is right to announce that apart from the reduction of 70 per cent wage cut during the state of emergency, we will now also make contributions so that the club’s staffs can collect 100 per cent of their salary while this situation continues.”
Last week, According to Reports in Spain, Senior members of the squad were against Barcelona’s plans to cut wages of 70 per cent, with club president Josep Maria Bartomeu moving to ensure a more favourable agreement was reached.
❗Lionel Messi has spoken up about the salary cut issue within the club. pic.twitter.com/eQ822wmOs0
— Barça Universal (@BarcaUniversal)
Barcelona have some of the world’s highest-paid players, including Messi who earns a shocking £500,000 per week before tax, without any bonuse or image rights.
Meanwhile, Antoine Griezmann earns £294,000 a week, Luiz Suares bags £290,000 a week, and Gerard Pique takes home £220,000 every seven days.
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