Barcelona have successfully applied for a Spanish labour legislation which will see their payment towards all employees decreased by 70%.
ESPN report that the Catalan giants – alongside Alaves and Espanyol, with Atletico de Madrid’s application pending – have had their applications for the scheme accepted, which will see outgoings reduced across the board.
This comes despite a Barcelona statement last week confirming the club had agreed a substantial pay cut with senior playing staff – claimed in a report in Cadena Ser to be 72% – to protect the incomes of the club’s non-playing staff.
However, the Blaugrana pushed on with their attempts to lower outgoings across the board and it now appears that the Spanish state will cover the remainder of the non-playing staff’s income.
An ERTE (Temporary Reduction of Employment Action) is Spain’s temporary redundancy scheme which is activated by the state of emergency within the country, with businesses losing access to their profits.
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 a national lockdown in place until 26 April.
