The Barcelona squad does not accept a salary cut and complains...

BARCELONA – Barcelona is preparing a salary reduction, as pointed out by ESPN Deportes, which will affect all spheres of the club and which has already caused, according to information advanced this Friday by RAC1, the reaction of the first team’s squads. team and the soccer affiliate, in disagreement with the announced measures and that, having placed the matter in the hands of a labor lawyer, they plan to send the club a burofax informing them of their refusal to accept the provisions of the club.

In the Camp Nou offices there have already been the first contacts, still indirect, between the Company Committee and Òscar Grau, general director of Barça and who, in direct collaboration with Josep Maria Bartomeu, will lead the negotiations on behalf of the entity, but Among those contacts, there has not been any official one from the squad, an internal club source explained to ESPN Deportes, warning that the only news was made known through third parties, regarding that the players do not intend to participate at the table. negotiation.

“The intentions of the club are known, but until the negotiation table is formed, the details will not be known,” confirmed the source consulted, acknowledging the “concern” among the entire group of employees after the first measures that have already been they took in the month of March.

The reduction that Barcelona intends to apply is estimated at between 20 and 30 percent of salaries and the negotiating table, after the letter that the Human Resources department sent on October 6 to all the club’s employees, including professional sports squads, should meet next week to reach an agreement within 15 days, before November 5.

The footballers, understanding that they are a different group from that of the other Barcelona workers, want to carry out a parallel negotiation, under different conditions, a situation that is understood by the other departments, and the Company Committee itself, considering that The salaries of the players have nothing to do with that of the more than 500 club workers, of which “many are mileuristas” as Josep Maria Bartomeu himself stated in an interview with Barça TV.

The letters that the club sent to all its workers did not specify the amount of the cuts but it differed in the case of the players. If in general there is talk of taking other measures to reduce expenses in different projects that cause a smaller decrease in salaries, as for footballers, mention is made of a “temporary salary adjustment”, or what is the same to defer payments in time.

This case has already occurred with the renewal of Nikola Mirotic, the star of the basketball squad signed in the summer of 2019 with a contract for three seasons and that last week he extended it until 2025 with a reduction in his salary in exchange for extend his relationship with the club for three years and in the case of football, the first protagonist to work with on similar terms is Marc-Andre Ter Stegen, with whom Bartomeu works on a contract whose salary would be increasing, taking into account current conditions and that it would improve in later years.

Barcelona warns the current salary burden “unsustainable”, recalling that despite saving 45 million dollars when it managed to convince its athletes to renegotiate their salaries in March, while the state of alarm lasted, it closed the year with losses close to 115 million.

“If we want to keep the wage bill ratios within the recommended indices, there must be a readjustment,” Vice President Jordi Moix warned during the presentation of last season’s accounts, in a clear warning that the cuts should be repeated.

The footballers, whose salary weight in the club represents almost 70 percent of spending, would understand this new reduction, but they are not willing to negotiate it under the conditions that the club intends, where an official communication is expected, the burofax mentioned by RAC1, that will open a new scenario in this general conflict that Barcelona faces.