Real Madrid see it as inevitable that they will need to eventually reduce the salaries of their football and basketball teams, say El Pais.
The report states that president Florentino Perez and club captain Sergio Ramos had previously discussed the situation and agreed that no salaries would be touched.
However, the club covers the salaries of 800 different individuals and the longer than anticipated absence of football means that the higher earners from their top two teams may need to reduce their income.
A number of other major Spanish clubs such as Barcelona, Atletico de Madrid and Espanyol have already announced huge wage cuts for their players, but Madrid’s economic strength is said to be much more flexible.
Los Blancos have a net debt of €27m but this pales in comparisons to that of Barcelona’s, which is said to be €217m.
However, unlike the other clubs it is said that Madrid do not think that applying an ERTE would be suitable for the situation.
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.
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.
However, Madrid’s wage budget is less than 50% of their overall income while Barcelona’s is said to be closer to 80% – hence the difference in prioritising a wage reduction for staff.
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.
