AS Roma football players and coaches waived their salaries until the end of the season
All members of AS Roma’s first-team football team have waived their salary until the end of the 2019/20 season due to the crisis caused by the pandemic of the new coronavirus. How and when the competition will end, the Romans are still playing in Serie A and Europa League is unknown, and the season could be deep into the summer.
Both AS Rome football players and coaches will not receive salaries until the end of the 2019/20 season to help the club through the difficult period of stopped sports because of the coronavirus pandemic. The Serie A Italian club announced on Sunday that football players with coach Paul Fonseca and co-workers will be waived for four months’ wages, successfully covering the salaries of other club employees who have had to wait and receive state aid.
“The club’s players, member coach Paulo Fonseca and his staff have voluntarily waived a four-month salary to help the club through the economic crisis that has been ruling the football world since the outbreak of the coronavirus,” it said in a press release. “The players, the coach and his staff have also agreed to settle the difference together to ensure that everyone now receiving state aid will still receive a normal net salary.”
‘They understand what this club means’
In Serie A, the event has been halted since March 9, but for now, as with all other European national championships, it is unknown when the competition will continue. Roma played their last match on 1 March and celebrated at Cagliari (4: 3), and the Europa League game in Seville was postponed.
“We are always talking about unity with Roma, and by voluntarily reducing their salaries by the end of the season, the players, the coach and his staff have proven that they are really all in this together,” said Rome CEO Guido Fienga. “(Captain and striker, op. A.) Edin Dzeko, all the players and Paulo have shown that they understand what this club means, and we thank them for their outstanding gesture to the club staff.”
For the time being, Serie A’s wages have also been lowered for champions Juventus, Parma, where Slovenian national team player Jasmin Kurtic plays, and Cagliari, but for the football world so far the move of the Roma members is by far the most high-profile and generous. The union of footballers, however, rejected the Serie A initiative to introduce similar measures in other clubs of the national competition, since, according to the union, smaller clubs cannot afford something like that. Roma also said that if the season continues and ends successfully, players will be eligible for some financial compensation, which “will depend on the fulfillment of certain sporting achievements.”
