Soccer-Partizan halve wages amid coronavirus pandemic


Reuters | Belgrade | Updated: 08-04-2020 20:17 IST | Created: 08-04-2020 20:17 IST
Soccer-Partizan halve wages amid coronavirus pandemic
  • Country:
  • Serbia

Partizan Belgrade have slashed player, staff and board wages by 50% for the next three months to cut losses during the coronavirus pandemic, the Serbian first division club said on Wednesday. "The reality is that the state of emergency (in Serbia because of the pandemic) will stay in effect until the second half of May," Partizan said in a statement released to the Balkan nation's media.

"The championship is unlikely to resume before June, hence regular business has been disrupted. The board has decided to halve the wages of all players, coaching staff and management in the next three months." Partizan have thus followed in the footsteps of Serbian champions and local rivals Red Star Belgrade, who halved player wages on Saturday and also terminated contracts with Dutchman Rajiv van la Parra and Brazilian defender Jander.

Leagues across Europe have been trying to reach agreements over wage cuts after global sport came to a virtual standstill last month due to the coronavirus pandemic. While Barcelona players agreed to take more than a 70% pay cut so that the club's other employees can earn their full salaries during the enforced break, many others are still in negotiations to help clubs during the suspension of action.

Serbia has so far registered 2,666 confirmed cases and 65 deaths and the government tightened lockdown on measures on Wednesday in an effort to curb the pandemic. In addition to the 5pm to 5am curfew on weekdays, a more stringent lockdown was imposed for the upcoming weekends. A curfew will be in place from 5pm on Fridays until 5am on Mondays as the number of infected citizens soared.

Partizan are second in the Serbian top flight on 58 points from 26 games, 11 behind Red Star. (Writing by Zoran Milosavljevic; Editing by Pritha Sarkar)

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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