Three-quarters of Rugby Australia’s staff were temporarily laid off yesterday amid huge financial losses from the sport’s coronavirus-enforced shutdown, while Lionel Messi confirmed on Monday that Barcelona’s players would take a 70 percent pay cut to ensure that the club’s other employees are paid.
The cuts to rugby staff were “the toughest decision in the game’s history,” governing body CEO Raelene Castle said. “Although extremely painful, they are necessary to ensure ... we are able to come out the other side of this global crisis, fully operational and ready to throw everything into the rebuild.”
The sport has been hit hard by the suspension of the Super Rugby season, said Castle, who is to take a 50 percent cut to her US$500,000-plus salary.
Photo: Reuters
A worst-case scenario, in which the entire season would be lost, would cost the governing body A$120 million (US$74.03 million) in revenue, Castle said.
Messi, in a lengthy message posted on Instagram, confirmed that Barcelona players would take a 70 percent pay cut and make contributions to ensure that the club’s other employees are paid in full during the state of emergency in Spain.
Other Spanish clubs are expected to follow suit in applying temporary pay cuts, as soccer’s hiatus due to the pandemic leaves a number of sides fighting for financial survival.
Atletico Madrid have said that the club would impose salary reductions on staff whose hours have been affected, while RCD Espanyol have also confirmed pay cuts, although for sports staff only.
“For our part, the time has come to announce that, as well as the reduction of 70 percent of our salary during the state of alarm, we will also make contributions, so the club’s employees can collect 100 percent of their salary while this situation lasts,” Messi wrote.
“We want to clarify that our desire has always been to apply a drop in salary because we fully understand that this is an exceptional situation and we are the first ones who have always helped the club when asked,” he added. “Many times we have even done it on our own initiative when we thought it necessary or important.”
The senior players were on board with taking pay cuts right from the start, Barcelona president Josep Bartomeu said later on Monday.
“From the first moment, I wanted it be something agreed and not imposed — even if I could do it by law — but we wanted to reach an agreement, because it’s best for Barca and shows their commitment,” Bartomeu told sports daily Mundo Deportivo.
“In the case of the football first team, the reduction will be more than 70 percent, as agreed with the club,” Barcelona said in a statement. “This additional contribution by the team, plus the contribution from the club itself, will guarantee 100 percent of the salaries of all non-sporting staff, who will be subjected to temporary redundancy this week.”
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier