Serie A CEO Luigi De Siervo believes that many players in the Italian top flight acted selfishly by refusing to accept wage cuts when the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic began to be felt.
Speaking at the Social Football Summit in Rome, as reported by FCInter1908, De Siervo criticized the actions of players and agents who refused to make sacrifices during the pandemic.
Inter were one of the clubs who paid out the full wages of their squad through the pandemic, despite the fact that they were one of the hardest-hit clubs in Serie A economically.
The debt and liquidity crisis at the parent company of Inter owners Suning was widely reported, and this made the payment of the full wages to players a significant issue although in the end the club managed to do so.
However, De Siervo is of the view that situations like this reflect an excessive self-interest by players and agents who were in a situation where the clubs were going through economic hardships.
“In Italian football, €1.2 billion was lost but money still went into the hands of players who with great selfishness turned down wage cuts while the clubs suffered,” he stated.
“These guys are role models for thousands of people,” he went on, “but in in this moment of crisis the players did not do their part.”
De Siervo went on that “We did not have the tools to impose a salary cut and the teams were exposed to the bullying of agents and players. We are renewing the collective agreement with the AIC but we are encountering resistance.”
“We are talking about a category of privileged people,” he said of the players, “who should be linked to the financial outcomes at the teams.”
