The AFL and the league's players have reached an agreement on a pay-cut deal that will lead to the players losing 50 per cent over the next eight weeks and then either 70 per cent or 50 per cent for the remainder of the season.
The players will lose 70 per cent of their pay for the period after May 31 if the games are not played. They will receive 50 per cent only in the event that games are played and this will not change,regardless of whether crowds are permitted at games later this season.
In other details of the deal,the players have had their pension payments held over during this season and they have also lost the direct funding - $4.2 million per year - from the AFL to fund the AFL Players Association's operations for 2020.
A $250,000 grant will be delivered for the AFLPA to provide mental health and wellbeing services as well as financial advice,and a $500,000 grant to be paid to allow the association to help players in financial hardship.
AFL boss Gillon McLachlan,who led the negotiations with AFLPA chief executive Paul Marsh,is understood to be taking the same pay cut this year as the players,who have been paid the first five months of their 12-month contracts. McLachlan made this undertaking during the discussions with Marsh.
‘‘The players always understood the gravity of the situation and have agreed to take significant pay cuts to ensure we can keep the industry going,"McLachlan said in a statement."I know it is not easy but I want to thank Paul Marsh and Patrick Dangerfield for their leadership and the action the players have taken for the collective good of the football community.”
To have a deal that was contingent on whether games were played was a key for the players. The negotiation was done at remarkable speed,considering a collective bargaining agreement would normally take months.
The deal applies only to the 2020 season,and leaves open the question of what AFL players will receive in 2021,when the football department soft cap will be cut from this year's starting point of $9.7 million to about $6.7 million,the AFL cutting that cap of $9.7 million by a million this year to stem the financial bleeding.
The Age is yet to confirm how the pay cuts will be broken down among players,and how the cuts may vary between the 800 or so players across the 18 clubs. This part of the deal will be extremely complex given that players have front-ended and back-loaded contracts.