Arsene Wenger said on Friday that football needs to tackle inflated player pay if it is to bounce back from the ravages of the coronavirus ...
Arsene Wenger said on Friday that football needs to tackle inflated player pay if it is to bounce back from the ravages of the coronavirus pandemic, saying “thousands” of clubs across Europe risk extinction.
Former Arsenal coach Wenger warned a reduction in wages was needed in the wake of the billions set to be lost due to the Covid-19 crisis, which forced the game into a months-long hiatus.
“We calculate it here that overall football will lose 20% of its income. Football makes, say, 45 billion turnover in the world –- the loss will be 10 to 14 billion,” Wenger told beIN Sports.
“If you look at the wages structure in most of the clubs it’s between 60 and 80% of the turnover. That means only the players wages can sort that problem out.”
Wenger added the outbreak has made “the weak clubs weaker and the strong clubs stronger” and exposed how football “focussed on grouping the elite”.
He said the sport would lose “thousands” of clubs “because there’s too many clubs in trouble, and there’s not enough money there to help them enough to survive”.
Speaking about England, where he managed the Gunners for over two decades, Wenger said: “The Premier League will survive. I don’t worry for the Premier League.
“Of 92...
