Eintracht Frankfurt joins Schalke in successfully negotiating full 2020/21 player salary deferments
Player salary deferments remain part-and-parcel of the heavy financial losses associated with the COVID-Era. Though details of the various club-player arrangements have not always been made public, most teams have worked out some sort of compromise with their professionals.
Eintracht Frankfurt, like Schalke 04 ten days ago, opted to announce a newly brokered deal to everyone.
SGE Sporting CEO Fredi Bobic revealed in an interview on the club's website on Sunday that players and management had arrived at another compromise for salary waivers. Frankfurt players had already agreed to forfeit 20 percent of their wages from the period between April and September.
Eintracht Frankfurt, like Schalke 04 ten days ago, opted to announce a newly brokered deal to everyone.
Bobic did not disclose the actual percentage to be sacrificed this time, but did confirm that the agreement will last through the end of the 2020/21 season.
"It makes me proud that the players have once again voluntarily agreed to waive parts of their salary in the service of Eintracht," Bobic noted, "It nevertheless hurts to see how much we've built over the past four years being lost."
Bobic confirmed what virtually every other club has reported in recent weeks; that his organization presently operates under the assumption of an €80-120 million revenue loss for the season. "The important thing is that we get through this pandemic," he stressed.
Salary waivers being such a delicate issue, so much of their success hinges on proper communication channels between a club's board of directors and a locker-room leadership figure that can deliver the support of the players.
When discussing a similar arrangement at Schalke 04 some days back, team captain Omar Mascarell credited "positive discussions" and "straightforward, uncomplicated solutions" on behalf of his negotiating partners in the front office.
At present, only Schalke and Frankfurt are known to have a standing agreement in place for player salary waivers through the end of the current season in June 2021.