AFL season could be cancelled if players don’t agree to 80 per cent pay cut

The AFL has knocked back players’ offer of a 50 per cent wage cut, prompting a standoff between league HQ and the AFLPA. And a key member of the AFL’s war cabinet was warned the dispute could lead to season 2020 being abandoned.

The AFL wants the players to accept an 80 per cent pay cut.

The AFL season could be cancelled and all 850 players stood down if they refuse to accept the league’s demand for an immediate 80 per cent pay cut, Hawthorn president Jeff Kennett warned on Tuesday.

Players are holding firm to their offer of a 50 per cent wages reduction until the fate of the 2020 season becomes clearer.

A tentative restart date has been set for May 31.

Talks between AFL boss Gillon McLachlan and AFL Players’ Association boss Paul Marsh failed to resolve the standoff on Tuesday.

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“I understand their concern but this is about survival between now and when the competition starts again,” Kennett, a member of the AFL’s emergency “war cabinet”, told the Herald Sun.

“And if an impasse cannot be resolved one of the alternatives is the players don’t get paid at all until, and if, the season opens again.

“If they don’t understand the urgency of this situation and the fact that clubs and the AFL have laid off and stood down hundreds of people, you’ve got to ask yourself why they should be treated any differently.

“If the players don’t realise the seriousness of this and take what has been offered, they run the very real risk that the AFL and the clubs will have no alternative but to declare the season over.

“They would receive no money and if the season reignited later on then we would invite back those who want to play under a whole lot of new conditions.

“No-one is trying to mislead or gain here. We are simply trying to survive and there are others codes who won’t survive.”

While seen as a last-resort nuclear option, the AFL has the power to stand down all players without pay if a resolution cannot be reached.

McLachlan, who has volunteered a 20 per cent pay cut from his own multimillion-dollar salary, wants the game’s players to take an 80 per cent pay cut for the next seven months.

The league argues the players have been paid in full for the past five months and that their offer accounts for a pay cut of just 35 per cent across a 12-month period.

The AFL is frustrated at the players’ position, maintaining that they do not appreciate the seriousness of the game’s financial situation.

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But all players have been told to stay in training and be ready to go for a resumption.

Collingwood president Eddie McGuire urged the decision makers not to “screw the players”.

“This is not a union dispute,” McGuire told Triple M.

“This is not people trying to get into it and claim a scalp.

“The situation is that the players have received money for this half of the year, because that was fair enough, everyone’s getting paid.

“It’s the next part of the journey that we have to get through until we actually start playing games again and we can get some money coming in

“The Channel 7 money, the Foxtel money, stopped this week. It’s finished, it’s all over.

“There’s no gate receipts, the AFL is cutting through its costs, all the clubs are cutting through their costs, and we have to come to an elegant situation here.

“If there’s no money, there’s no money.

“We need to not screw the players at the same time. These are the centrepiece of our game, they’re wonderful people, they’re great young men, and we have to do the right thing.”

Originally published as AFL season could be cancelled if players don’t agree to 80 per cent pay cut