Atletico Madrid impose 70 per cent salary cuts on playing staff

Atletico Madrid have followed fellow La Liga rivals Barcelona in impsoing a 70 per cent wage cut on playing staff. Reuters

Atletico Madrid on Thursday became the latest high-profile European football club to impose salary cuts on first team players to help ease the financial pressures brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.

In a statement, the Spanish club said that the reduction, which will amount to 70 per cent, regards the "coaches and players of the men's first team, women's first team and Atletico Madrid B" for the duration of the crisis in Spain, which has been hit particularly hard by the spread of Covid-19.

Atletico had announced last week that they had asked labour authorities to slash player pay through a partial unemployment scheme.

Atletico added that an agreement with the first team will enable the club to supplement the salaries of the 430 staff put on partial unemployment.

"The first team will contribute half of the necessary amount and the members of the club's Management Committee, made up of the CEO and the directors of the different areas, the other half," the statement said.

On Monday, Lionel Messi announced that his Barcelona teammates had agreed to the same pay cut, and that they would also supplement the salaries of the club's employees. Messi also took a swipe at Barca bosses for their handling of the wage reduction process.

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Major clubs to impose pay cuts during coronavirus crisis