AFL and players union will try and solve an impasse over a players pay cut after first offer was refused by the league
Negotiations will continue today over what sort of pay cut AFL players will take while the 2020 season is shutdown due to the coronavirus pandemic.
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Negotiations will continue today over what sort of pay cut AFL players will take while the 2020 season is shutdown.
On Monday night the players volunteered a 50 per cent pay cut, effectively immediately.
This would last until May 31 - the competition’s proposed restart date.
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If the 2020 season is abandoned, players will agree to even more drastic salary reductions.
But the AFL, who significantly cut its cloth on Monday, want the players to take more of a hit.
The Advertiser understands the league will be pushing for a 75 per cent cut over the coming months.
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Prominent player agent Liam Pickering the AFL Players Association would again meet today.
“The players have agreed on that is what it is (the 50-per cent cut), now it is up to the AFL to agree on what the AFL players have agreed to,” he said on SEN SA.
“There’s still a fair bit of water to go under the bridge but everyone is working together and that is the main thing.”
After the league was suspended because of increased fears around the coronavirus pandemic after just one round, players of some clubs were picking up footy’s, weights and exercise equipment from training bases on Monday as the reality of the situation began to sink in.
“A lot of them are young, they didn’t expect this,” Pickering said.
“And it’s hit them like a sledgehammer really.”
Players will collect their next salary from March 27 before taking a month’s forced leave.
But is what money is available post this that will be key.
As of this week the vital money the AFL gets from Channel 7 and Foxtel TV deals stop with no games to be played, already adding to no gate revenue for the AFL and clubs.
It comes as entire football departments were stood down under Fair Work provisions. Some are likely to be made redundant in coming days.
Port Adelaide is expected to today work through its staffing numbers, while the Crows have put club staff on special paid leave for seven days while the entire operation’s future was assessed.
Four in five of the AFL’s 600 staff will also stand down immediately, with the remainder working four days a week on reduced pay.
One senior football department figure told The Advertiser: “It’s armageddon.”
Some clubs have up to 180 part-time and full-time staff that will be gutted by AFL regulations seeking to slash the football soft cap from $9.7 million to $6.7 million.
New deals for players with expiring contracts has also been put on hold as the league comes to grips with the huge financial impact the crisis is going to have.