The Warm-Up: Ozil predictably singled out as Arsenal players agree to wage cut
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Updated 21/04/2020 at 09:57 GMT
Are we singling out footballers unfairly? Are we singling out Arsenal players within that? And within that, are we singling out Mesut Ozil?
Mesut Özil of FC Arsenal
Image credit: Getty Images
TUESDAY’S BIG STORIES
Arsenal players agree to wage deferral…well, some of them do
The saga of whether Arsenal’s players would agree to a salary cut has been rumbling on for what feels like almost as long as this whole crisis. We’re not entirely sure why there has been so much focus on Arsenal, rather than players from another club or indeed players in general: perhaps it’s because they’re the first, but a consequence of that is, as negotiations continue, it’s been increasingly easy to single out those players who apparently aren’t instantly happy to hand over huge wedges of their own cash.
It is of course morally correct that people in society who have plenty should use their own fortune to help out people who have little. But footballers already do that, so on top of the Jordan Henderson-led initiative to raise money for NHS initiatives and the already extensive charity work footballers do, how much more can we ask, as a society?
Anyway, Arsenal confirmed that most players have taken a 12.5% cut, with certain conditions (namely that we actually finish this season at some stage and they get the full cut of television money. Arsenal said:
Reductions of total earnings by 12.5% will come into effect this month, with the contractual paperwork being completed in the coming days. If we meet specific targets in the seasons ahead, primarily linked to success on the pitch, the club will repay agreed amounts. We will be able to make those repayments as hitting these targets, which the players can directly influence, will mean our financial position will be stronger
One interesting element to this is that there are rumoured to be three players who haven’t agreed to the cut, and the name that has been leaked is Mesut Ozil. Interestingly, the identity of the other two players is a mystery. Now, of course, as the club’s highest earner and probably most high-profile player, it’s inevitable that him not taking the cut will be reported, but it’s depressingly predictable that Ozil has been singled out – by whoever has leaked that name – while the other two nobody seems to care about. It’s a familiar tale.
Bundesliga to return in mid-May?
The resumption of football in under a month still feels like a flamboyantly optimistic and even dangerous thing, but it seems that would be the aim of our friends in Germany.
The tentative plan is for Bundesliga games to resume behind closed doors on perhaps the weekend of May 9, probably more realistically May 16, something that took a step closer to happening after a virtual meeting of the key people in Bavaria on Monday, a step that Bayern Munich grosse-kase Karl-Heinz Rummenigge called “a very positive signal.”
“It is important that we treat the politicians’ legal and medical guidelines in an exemplary and very serious manner in order to minimise the health risk,” Rummenigge said.
“I would like to thank the management of the DFL, headed by Christian Seifert, for an excellent concept that takes full account of organisational and medical aspects. This concept is the basis for the positive and trustworthy assessment of the policy.”
Shockingly, there could be a link between the spread of coronavirus and mass gatherings of people
The British government’s deputy chief scientific advisor has said the connection between the spread of the coronavirus on Merseyside and the Champions League game between Liverpool and Atletico Madrid is an ‘interesting hypothesis.’
On the same night that PSG v Borussia Dortmund was held behind closed doors in Paris, 3,000 Atletico fans travelled to Anfield when the spread of the virus in Madrid was in a much more advanced state than in the UK.
The latest figures suggest 246 people have died in Merseyside hospitals from the virus, and Angela McLean, called the link between Liverpool and Madrid “an interesting hypothesis.” She then told the Liverpool Echo:
“I’m genuinely sad to hear that so many people in Liverpool have been unwell and so many have died. I think it would be very interesting to see in the future when all the science is done what relationship there is between the viruses that have circulated in Liverpool and the viruses that have circulated in Spain.”
IN OTHER NEWS
Strictly speaking this belongs in Retro Corner but we’ve already got two clips in there and we could all probably do with a little cheering up.
HAT TIP
Fifpro’s study of 1,602 professional players, conducted between 22 March and 14 April, discovered that 22% of 468 female players and 13% of 1,134 male players reported symptoms consistent with a diagnosis of depression. It also found that 18% of the women and 16% of men reported markers of generalised anxiety. England, Scotland and the Republic of Ireland were among 16 countries – all of which have implemented drastic measures to contain Covid-19, such as home confinement – whose footballers were surveyed
One of the under-discussed elements of this crisis is how it will affect mental health – and in this case footballers’ mental health. Nick Ames in the Guardian reveals some worrying figures.
RETRO CORNER
A mixed day of anniversaries for Roy Keane. On this day in 1999 he dragged Manchester United (not quite single-handedly) to the Champions League final in this semi against Juventus, despite knowing he would be suspended…
…but then two years later, he assaulted Erling Braut Haaland’s dad. A mixed bag, then.
Ben Snowball can be just as ruthless with his challenges. But hopefully he’ll have calmed down enough by tomorrow to bring a sensible and measured Warm-Up.
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