Getafe president Angel Torres has ruled out his club using an ERTE for player’s wage reductions and believes other clubs have ‘rushed’ into utilising them.
The head of Los Azulones claimed all La Liga clubs have already received the monies from the TV deal until the end of May, negating the need for an urgent reduction in outgoings.
A number of La Liga clubs have announced they are activating an ERTE – Spain’s temporary redundancy scheme which is activated by the state of emergency within the country, with businesses losing access to their profits.
A number of major Spanish clubs such as Barcelona, Atletico de Madrid and Espanyol have already announced huge wage cuts for their players.
As outlined by El Mundo last week, Atletico de Madrid have declared an ERTE to reduce costs on employees: “With the sole objective of guaranteeing the survival of the club.”
An Espanyol statement also confirmed 70 percent pay cut for all players, coaches, physios of their men’s, women’s and youth teams while a report in Cadena Cope has outlined how Barcelona are doing similar.
“Getafe won’t be bringing forward an ERTE, I don’t understand why other teams have done so, I don’t understand the rush,” Torres told Onda Cero. “I think they’ve rushed into it. We’ve been paid the TV rights money until 30 May.”
When asked when football will restart in Spain, Torres stressed, in quotes carried by Marca, that the decision is made by the health and government authorities: “The priority is to play when the doctors and the government say that it is possible to play.”
Torres previously stated that his side would refuse to travel to Milan earlier this month to take on Inter in the Europa League due to health and safety concerns, before football was brought to a standstill.
“That decision was justified,” Torres, who said his team would forfeit the tie if it was not called off, continued. “It showed that health is more important than anything else.”
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.
Spain is now behind only Italy on the global scale for the most deaths due to the virus, with the nation now 16 days into a 30-day state of lockdown.
