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Barcelona players have agreed to take a 70% pay cut in order to keep the club afloat as Spain remains in the state of alarm over the COVID-19 pandemic.
Team captain, Lionel Messi, on Monday that in addition to the salary slash, he and his colleagues will also make contributions to guarantee that staff at the club earn their full salary throughout the coronavirus crisis.
According to a statement released by Luis Suárez on Monday, Messi embraced the need for the players to be the ones to bear the brunt of the economic impact on the club.
The club also released a statement on Monday explaining the agreement.
It would be recalled that Barcelona announced last week that they were going apply the Spanish labour law which allows companies to impose a temporary pay cut on their employees during the crisis.
The statement from the players, released on Messi’s Instagram account, accepts that measure and confirms that the players will have their salary cut by the full 70%. On top of that, the first-team squad, whose collective annual salaries amount to €391m (£347m), have promised to protect the rest of the staff.
“Beyond the reduction of 70% of our salaries during the state of alarm, we are also going to make further contribution to ensure that the employees can continue to be paid 100% of their salaries for as long as this situation lasts,” Messi’s statement read.