After all the discussion, it turns out that Chelsea players won’t take a wage cut after all. The club announced on Saturday an update for the first team, the ladies team, casual staff, and others regarding pay, but the first team’s pay cut, or lack thereof, is the biggest surprise.
Player Wages Won’t Be Cut at Chelsea
Chelsea’s Statement
In the statement via the club’s website, the Blues said: “At this time, the men’s first team will not be contributing towards the club financially and instead the board have directed the team to focus their efforts on further supporting other charitable causes.”
One charity, in particular, the players are supporting is the Players Together Initiative, organized by Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson. The money players contribute will go directly to fund the NHS during the Coronavirus pandemic.
That has been the double-edged sword right now when it comes to the player wage cut and furlough debate. If players take a pay cut, then they have less to donate to charity, but if players don’t take a wage cut or deferral, then that puts the club under more financial strain at this unique time and, heaven forbid, could be forced to shut down.
Another catch 22 facing the clubs and players is if club staff have been furloughed because the club can’t make payroll, then players should also take a pay cut. They have the highest wages at the club and cutting from their salaries saves more than cutting the casual staff salaries. If the players take a pay cut, which for some players could be tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands a week, that means the UK government won’t collect as much tax revenue. Therefore, that hurts the NHS.
Regardless of which side you come down on for either issue, neither have easy choices without trade-offs.
For Chelsea, full wages with individual player donations won out and worked best.
Surprise Decision
It comes as a shock that Chelsea’s players won’t take a pay cut because reports earlier in the week suggested differently. At the time, club captain Cesar Azpilicueta had taken up negotiations with the board as the players’ representative, and the players were believed to be close to agreeing to a 10% cut.
However, no timeline for the pay cut was reported. So, maybe Chelsea and the players weren’t that close to a deal after all, and the negotiations broke down early enough that even ‘break down’ is too harsh of a description.
But in one last twist, the Daily Mail says the club will try again to reach an agreement of some kind with the players.
Just like everything else right now, no one knows; it’s just one day at a time right now.
Main Photo
