Barcelona players have rejected a club proposal to reduce their wage bill during the coronavirus outbreak, according to a report in ESPN.
The report outlines how the club captains are negotiating with the board of directors and whilst there is said to be openness to a compromise, the players are unhappy with the current proposals being offered.
The wage cut will be applicable to all senior teams at the club, including the women’s football team and the men’s basketball side.
However, the report underlines how the focus is on the men’s senior football team whose combined wage bill is over €500m and is said to be the highest of any professional sports club in the world.
If there is no agreement, the Barcelona board could enforce a pay cut upon its employees.
The coronavirus outbreak has brought sport across the world to a halt with Spanish football suspended indefinitely – meaning that all clubs have no income from matchdays or, for the elite clubs, their museums.
On Wednesday, it was confirmed that there were 47,610 confirmed cases of the virus in Spain, with a total of 3,434 deaths – surpassing China.
Those figures translate as 7,937 new cases in one day and 738 (an increase of 224 from Monday’s figures) more deaths.
