Tottenham have reduced the wages of non-playing staff by 20
percent for the next two months, with chairman Daniel Levy hoping players will
follow suit due to the financial crisis caused by coronavirus.
Players at Barcelona, Juventus and Bayern Munich are among
those to have taken either a significant wage cut or deferred payments during
the crisis.
Football in England is suspended until at least April 30 and
a meeting of Premier League clubs on Friday is expected to push that date
further back.
“Having already taken steps to reduce costs, we ourselves
made the difficult decision, in order to protect jobs, to reduce the
remuneration of all 550 non-playing directors and employees for April and May
by 20 percent,” Levy said in a statement on the Spurs website.
“We hope the current discussions between the Premier League,
PFA (Professional Footballers’ Association) and LMA (League Managers
Association) will result in players and coaches doing their bit for the
football eco system.”
Tottenham earlier this month posted profits of £68.6 million
($85 million) for the year to June 2019 on the back of a run to the Champions
League final and their move into a new 62,000-capacity stadium.
However, Levy said those numbers bore little relevance, with
the club facing a difficult period and uncertainty among sponsors and media
partners.
“When I read or hear stories about player transfers this
summer like nothing has happened, people need to wake up to the enormity of
what is happening around us,” he added.
“We maybe the eighth-largest Club in the world by revenue
according to the Deloitte survey but all that historical data is totally
irrelevant as this virus has no boundaries.”
Tottenham sit eighth in the Premier League table and would
therefore miss out on the riches of Champions League football for the first
time in five years next season if the league were to be curtailed as it stands.
However, economic factors are behind the desire of Premier
League clubs to finish the campaign, even if it means doing so behind closed
doors.
According to reports, the clubs would have to reimburse
broadcasters to the tune of £762 million if the season is not completed.
