When most footballers are yet to accept a pay cut amid the coronavirus pandemic which has halted football across the world, players and coaches of AS Roma have given up their wages for the rest of the 2019-2020 football season in order to help the club to stay afloat.
Since the coronavirus pandemic hit football, every club, especially in Europe where players earn a huge sum of wages, have been complaining that they might not be able to hold on for too long if live matches do not resume before August.
Besides the complaints from club owners, league bodies across Europe have been counting their losses over the pandemic that has forced the world to halt for over one month now.
To help salvage the situation at Serie A side AS Roma, the club issued a statement that the players and coaches staff voluntarily gave up their entire wages for four months in order to help the club amid the coronavirus crisis.
“The club’s players, first-team coach Paulo Fonseca, and his staff have volunteered to forgo four months’ salary this season to help the club navigate the economic crisis that has engulfed the world of football since the coronavirus outbreak“, a statement from the club said.
“The players, coach and his coaching staff have also agreed to collectively pay the difference to ensure that all Roma employees who were placed on the government’s social safety net scheme will still receive their regular net salary.”
AS Roma Biggest Challenge
Like other leagues in Europe, the Italian Serie A had to be suspended on March 9 indefinitely as the country became one of the worst-hit countries as far as the pandemic is concerned.
Before the league was Suspended, most of the clubs have played 26 matches while few others played 25 matches with at most 13 matches left for the season to end.
As Roma which has played 26 matches so far, was struggling to join Juventus, Lazio, Inter Milan at the top four on the league table before the season was suspended. But the club found it difficult to displace Atalanta which is currently sitting at the fourth spot on the league table.
However, that is not the headache of AS Roma currently. The most important thing for the 5th placed club on the league table is to be able to cut cost as much as possible in order to remain afloat during and after the pandemic.
So, it is a big win for Roma now that the players had volunteered to forgo their wages.
Roma chief executive Guido Fienga said: “We always talk about unity at Roma and in volunteering to cut their salaries for the rest of the season, the players, the coach, and his staff, have all proved that we really are in this together.
“Edin Dzeko (Club captain), all the players and Paulo have demonstrated they understand what this club stands for and we also thank them all for their superb gesture towards the employees at this club.”
