Steven Zhang has every right to ask Inter’s players to take wage cuts, a leading Italian journalist argued today.
Inter’s president wants everyone in the first-team squad to give up two months’ wages in order to help Suning tackle the club’s financial crisis.
The Nerazzurri’s players are widely thought to be against the idea, having already agreed to defer several monthly installments of their wages until the end of this season.
Panorama and Radio 24’s Giovanni Capuano understands Zhang’s position though, explaining on Telelombardia today: “I think what Zhang is asking of the team, to reach a compromise, is correct and healthy.
“It’s something everyone should learn to do and the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) has also moved to help clubs with this.
“If Inter and other clubs hadn’t realised the problem (earlier in the season), it would have been very difficult to respect the monthly deadlines for wage payments.
“If we’re talking now about installments which were due in November and December, that’s because the FIGC quite rightly allowed clubs to make deferrals.”
Inter overcame their serious financial problems this season to secure their first Serie A title in 11 years, wrapping up the scudetto with four games to spare.
The Nerazzurri’s critics have suggested their title triumph is ‘illegitimate’ because they have failed to pay their wages on time – but as Capuano pointed out, there is more than a hint of double standards in those claims.
“Juventus won the scudetto last season after agreeing to defer payments for four monthly installments,” he recalled.
“Nobody dreamed of saying then that it was an illegitimate title because they’d only paid eight installments out of 12…”
