Amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic that has forced the postponement of sports leagues around the world, the players of FC Barcelona have agreed to a 70% wage cut in order to allow the team to pay its other full-time employees.
Messi, who has recently been at odds with the team’s board, took to Instagram to share his view that he and his teammates were happy to be temporarily be paid less so that other, much lower-paid staff would receive their full salaries during the work stoppage.
The subtext of Messi’s post is that Barcelona’s board had been accused of leaking that the players were somehow unhappy with the wage cut to the press and that they would have to be forced into doing so.
Messi cleared the air, stating, “The moment has come to announce that, as well as reducing our salaries by 70 per cent during the state of emergency, we’re going to make some contributions so that all the employees at the club can earn 100 per cent of their wages during this situation.”
He also added, ” It doesn’t surprise us that the club wanted to put us back under the microscope and try to pressure us into doing something we were always going to do.”
The war of words might go on between Barcelona’s players and its board, but at least in the meantime, they will help out the club’s other employees with a selfless pay cut.
