Hearts players and staff asked to take 50 per cent PAY CUT in bid to save club from financial meltdown

HEARTS players and staff have been asked to take a whopping 50 per cent wage-cut in a desperate bid to save the club from financial meltdown.

SunSport can exclusively reveal club owner Ann Budge has taken extraordinary cost-cutting steps with fears she cannot keep the cash-strapped club afloat during the Coronavirus outbreak.

Hearts owner Ann Budge has asked players and staff to take a 50 per cent pay cutCredit: Willie Vass – The Sun

The Hearts owner revealed earlier this week how the pandemic has already cost the Edinburgh club £1million.

Now Budge has written to all staff revealing her huge concerns that the global health crisis could lead to major job losses at Tynecastle.

She wants boss Daniel Stendel, his coaching staff and all the club’s players to accept the same wage drop as everyone else working for the club.

Anyone who is NOT prepared to accept the new terms will be offered a pay deal to leave.

In a memo sent out earlier today, Budge said: “In order to try to prevent a staff redundancy programme and to protect as many jobs as possible, I am proposing measures in relation to our staffing costs.

“These measures will apply across all areas of the business; our commercial and community operations at Tynecastle, our football operations at Oriam, our coaching staff and our players.

“With effect from the beginning of April, we will be asking all full-time employees, managers, coaches, players and player back-room staff to accept a 50 per cent cut in their monthly salary.

“No one’s full-time salary will fall below the Living Wage.

“In other words, if the 50 per cent reduction would take anyone’s salary below this threshold, the full-time salary will be set at £18,135.

“Anyone who feels unable or willing to accept this revision to their salary, will be offered a termination option.

“If you are in this category, please speak to your manager as quickly as possible.

“Any player who wishes to discuss termination options, please contact Janine Brown in the first instance.

“Given the uncertainty of the whole situation with which we have been presented, we cannot say how long these measures will be in place.

“We will, of course, be continuously reviewing the situation.”

HALF A MILLION SHORT

Budge had expected the club to make £500,000 from their remaining home league games and the same amount from their Scottish Cup semi-final clash with Hibs.

But in her statement to all staff, Budge added: “We are living through unprecedented and challenging times at the moment.

“As you will appreciate my priority is the health and well-being of our people and in addition to this, as Chairman and CEO of the club, I must also do everything in my power to ensure that we keep our club safe and financially sound.

“The Scottish FA has now suspended football for the foreseeable future and, whilst there is no specified end date to this, it is most likely that the game will not resume until July/early August at the earliest.

“In addition, the latest Government measures regarding social distancing and restrictions on large gatherings, mean that the impacts of this will be felt across our entire business.

“This has two main consequences for the club: (i) There will be no income from matches and all associated business streams whilst football is suspended; (ii) There is unlikely to be any income from our non-matchday business streams (eg events/bar).

“This reduction in income is not sustainable without taking immediate action to cut staff costs and overheads.

“As such, I need to act swiftly and take steps now to ensure that we, as a club, can weather this storm while trying to ensure we are ready to resume operations as and when we move into calmer waters and football restarts.

“I cannot achieve this without the full cooperation and support of all of our key stakeholders, namely staff, coaches, players and supporters.

“I cannot stress strongly enough that we need everyone to get behind the club to help us through this.”

Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk