Inter chief executive Beppe Marotta has warned Serie A clubs could start going bust if player salaries are not slashed quickly.
The Covid-19 crisis has led to financial strife across the board in Italy’s top flight, with Inter’s owners Suning reportedly seeking new investors to help reduce expenses.
Marotta told Corriere della Sera the Italian football system was reaching breaking point, hinting that the league needed to introduce a collective reduction in player salaries.
“Labour costs are a huge weight on clubs’ finances at the moment,” he said.
“With match-day revenue gone and reduced financial support from clubs’ sponsors, clubs are having to use 65% of their annual turnover to pay their players.
“This would lead to numerous defaults in any business industry.
“We need to study ways to contain our financial losses, the league and the federation will have to work together on this.
“The problem exists across Europe: the financial recession is borne out, unsurprisingly, by the lack of activity in the January transfer window so far.”
Many clubs in Serie A are concerned they cannot afford to keep paying their players their wages as per the contracts that were signed in a pre-Covid-19 world.
CdS reported that the Lega Serie A, the body which represents all 20 Serie A clubs, are planning to ask the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) to delay the last deadline for clubs to pay wages due in November-December 2020, which is currently set at 16 February.
The league is also hoping the Italian government will provide some kind of financial support package to help clubs through the crisis, but cooperation so far is said to have been ‘non-existent’.
