Italian sports lawyer Luca Ferrari has revealed that players have the right to free themselves from their contract if clubs chose to decrease, withhold or stop paying their wages entirely.
In the past few days Juventus reached an agreement with their players that means they will not be paid for the months of March, April, May or June given the ongoing global Coronavirus pandemic.
Many other Serie A clubs are said to be keen on following in the footsteps of the Bianconeri club and taking some similar action to help ease the financial blow that the pandemic has caused.
Ferrari, who is part of international law firm Withersworldwide, has revealed that clubs are well within their rights to take said action but warns that the players they will be impacting also having rights of their own in such a situation.
“An employer has the right to apply measures laid down by the state whilst the employee has the right to be able to exercise the constitutional right of free economic initiative, by releasing themselves and relying on the market,” Ferrari explained in an interview with Rome based newspaper Corriere dello Sport, which appeared in today’s print edition.
“Therefore, I do not see how the player can be prevented by law from withdrawing from the contract they are in for just cause and moving to another club, in Italy or abroad, once his club has informed him to have put him in a “redundancy fund” at 70% of their salary.”
