Pumas, Leon, and Pachuca join teams making salary adjustments in Liga MX

Pumas, Pachuca and Leon all announced that they will join other Liga MX teams in making salary adjustments because of the COVID-19 emergency. Pachuca and Leon are owned by the same group headed by Jesus Martinez, and they announced that there will be retaining salaries of the first team players during the emergency but would pay after the emergency. They also announced that the youth teams and the women’s team will not have their salaries adjusted, only the senior men’s team. Pumas didn’t make any distinction.

The COVID-19 Emergency stopped Mexican football on March 15th, although the majority of the games played that weekend were without crowds because of the start of the problem in Mexico. Clubs thus have had problems getting revenue like many clubs around the world who have suffered from the worldwide crisis. Grupo Orlegi, who owns Atlas and Santos, was the first club to announce that they will be withholding most of the salaries during the emergency and would complete them when football comes back. Queretaro had been the first club to do such actions but they weren’t announced, it was Coach Victor Manuel Vucetich who told the press that they had done so. Vucetich and Grupo Orlegi both announced that they would try to protect youth team players, who don’t have big salaries unlike the senior men’s team players. Now it’s Grupo Pachuca who owns both Pachuca and Leon, who announced the salary adjustment, saying that it will only happen with the senior men’s team and not with the youth team or the women’s team. Later on it was Pumas who announced it, and unlike all the other teams they didn’t mention any actions for their youth or women’s teams. They did announce the decision had the approval of the players, but it’s not clear if it’s from all players or just the senior men’s team. With no return to action in the horizon, it’s expected more teams will follow the lead of the six teams so far and announce salary adjustments until things get back to normal.