Mexican clubs start adjusting salaries because of COVID-19 emergency

Some Mexican clubs have announced that because of the COVID-19 emergency, which has stopped Mexican football as well as every major league in the world, salaries will be adjusted. Santos and Atlas, both under the ownership of Grupo Orlegi, announced that salaries will be reduced under the emergency by 45%. Meanwhile Queretaro’s coach Victor Manuel Vucetich announced that his club will also reduce salaries because of the emergency. In both cases, they announced that once the playing situation comes back to normal, the discounted salary will be paid in full.

The COVID-19 virus stopped Mexican football on March 15. While there is no date has been announced, rumors are that the tournament won’t return until at least May 15 at the earliest. Thus it’s not surprising that clubs would not take actions with player salaries. Although Liga MX had announced that no clubs were planning on making salary cuts, rumors were circulating in the press that it had already happened on a wide scale and had just not been announced. Yet it was only a couple of days later when Vucetich announced that this had happened and the players were in agreement with the decision. Then Grupo Orlegi announced the same adjustment with news that it had done so after a meeting with players and coaches. Vucetich confirmed that this would be worked out so that the players from the youth teams, the ones who don’t have big salaries like first team players, would be the less affected by having less of the salary reduced. Grupo Orlegi said that the bigger salaries were also the ones who would be retained more than the players who make less.

At the time of this article, no other clubs have said they would follow these clubs lead although it’s probably expected that it will keep happening as the work stoppage continues.