South Australian soccer clubs consider plan to slash player payments as they battle a coronavirus revenue drain
Clubs across SA’s top three soccer leagues are considering a unified plan to slash player payments among other cost-cutting measures, as they battle losses of up to $100,000 each due to the coronavirus shutdown.
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A unified plan to slash player payments across SA’s top three soccer leagues is among cost-cutting measures being considered by clubs as they battle a coronavirus revenue drain.
The state’s 36 semi-professional outfits will this week discuss a proposal aimed at ensuring their survival amid income losses of up to $100,000 each.
Reducing player wages, which are capped at $150,000 annually per top flight side, is one of the key measures on the table.
Some teams have not ruled out the possibility of asking talent to play for free, if and when local competitions resume from their COVID-19 suspension.
They are expected to be presented to Football SA for approval in the coming weeks.
National Premier Leagues SA side Raiders backed plans to cut costs, as the 68-year-old club bid to remain viable beyond the enforced hiatus.
The Gepps Cross outfit’s president Ian Krivicic said a reduction in player and coach payments throughout the divisions would help offset the financial deficit, if and when play returns.
“Clubs are looking at all the scenarios,” Krivicic said.
“But the reality is there will be reductions in their pay, because there’s no other way we can support it.
“We depend on sponsors, but we haven’t got those sponsors this year.
“That’s going to be the biggest impact, because we haven’t got that $100,000 income.
“We have to counterbalance that by cutting costs and unfortunately our biggest costs are players and coaches, so that’s where we start off.
“These are desperate situations for any business or any sporting players or any sporting codes.
“But it’s all about survival and we’re all going to take a hit. We’re all in on it together.”
SA then followed a national directive from Football Federation Australia for all senior and junior games and training sessions to be suspended until at least May 31.
West Adelaide chairman Alex Alexandrou said the united front by clubs was critical in
protecting the future of the game in the state.
He said the former National Soccer League champion, which was relegated to the second division last year, was prepared to scrap player wages altogether if it ensured its sustainability.
“There will definitely have to be a cut in player wages and what we pay coaches,” said Alexandrou, who echoed others in identifying the return of junior matches as a priority.
“Small businesses that have supported our club over the last 5-10 years, a lot of them aren’t operating at the moment so most clubs will lose most of their sponsorship.
“We might even be in a position where we say to the players ‘you have to play for nothing for the rest of the year until we reassess stuff next year’.
“But it might be a good reset in the long run.
“There will not be one club in the country that will be able to stick to the (player wage) commitments they made pre this environment.
“But we’ve got a responsibility to continue the sport for future generations and so have players.”
Elite competitions in other codes, such as the AFL and NRL, were also struggling to meet wage demands in the wake of coronavirus shutdowns.
NPL powerhouses Campbelltown City and MetroStars said it was difficult to predict the cuts required until a model for the resumption of play was confirmed.
But both agreed reducing player payments might be under consideration, particularly if the season restarted in a shortened format or featuring matches without spectators.
Adelaide Blue Eagles secretary Paul Giordano said the inability of some parents to pay junior fees had hurt clubs, given most had invoices for playing kits, equipment and registrations.
“Inevitably they (clubs) are not making the money that pays those bills,” Giordano said.
“There’s a few families where both parents have lost their job … so of course some of those people have said ‘we’re not paying any more with the uncertainty’.
“The thing that will come out of this is there will be a lot of clubs looking differently at their
books and revisiting their spending.
“I’d be really surprised if any club was going to proceed with paying their players what was originally agreed in contracts.
“If the league wants to restart this year in a different format, most clubs would be looking at ways of changing their payments because they just won’t have the revenue to keep up.
“Everyone is facing a similar problem and everyone wants to make sure that their club can survive.”
West Torrens Birkalla chairman Amin Ayoubi organised the meetings to share common concerns and ideas on the best way forward for the sport in the wake of COVID-19.
Ayoubi, also SA’s member on the Association of Australian Football Clubs board, said no concrete decisions had been made regarding the proposal.
He said state league sides across the country were considering similar strategies.