Aberdeen players, staff and management take pay cut to save club £1m
Club's funding gap down from £10m to £3.8m; Aberdeen chairman Dave Cormack: "We're not out of the woods, by any means"
Monday 27 July 2020 14:31, UK
Aberdeen's players, staff and management are all taking pay cuts averaging 20 per cent to save the club £1m.
Last month, the Scottish side put their projected losses from the impact of the coronavirus outbreak at £10m.
The latest cuts have been introduced as the club prepares for the 2020-21 season, under the assumption that they "will be playing in front of limited crowds for most, if not all" of the next campaign.
In a statement on Thursday, Aberdeen announced the wage cuts have contributed to reducing the funding gap from £10m to £3.8m.
The club has also received £2m from investors, saved a further £2m through the Government's job retention scheme, as well as £1m extra from season-ticket sales and £200,000 from less than expected 2019-20 season-ticket and seasonal-hospitality refunds.
"I'm humbled by the response of our hard‐working and dedicated executives, management, players and staff who have accepted these cuts and the reasons for them," Aberdeen chairman Dave Cormack said.
"They've demonstrated a willingness to do what needs to be done to help secure the club's future.
"As a result of our higher earners sharing in the financial pain inflicted by the coronavirus crisis, we're able to safeguard jobs and protect the incomes of those on a lower wage.
"It was clear that our situation was becoming unsustainable. These cuts help to further reduce our running costs to a more sustainable level against what income we can continue to generate through season-ticket sales, AberDNA Memberships and broadcast revenues. We have made significant strides getting the gap down to under £4m.
"We're not out of the woods, by any means, but everyone at the club is buoyed by our supporters and corporate clients' desire for us to work together to get through this. And I believe we will. Along with our goal of avoiding redundancies and looking after our lower-paid staff, we must stay competitive as a team and continue our investment in our youth academy.
"Every first-team squad player from last season is under contract for the 2020/21 season, putting a huge burden on our payroll, but it was something we planned 18 months ago to ensure continuity and consistency in the squad. We were investing in the future when the pandemic hit."
Cormack: We can't buy players for next season
The club's financial issues mean Aberdeen are not in a position to pay a transfer fee for a player for at least the next 12 months, Cormack said.
"We've been fairly transparent with the conversations we have had with everybody," he told Sky Sports News.
"Apart from having a hiring freeze across the club - unless there are any vacant positions - on the football side, we won't be spending any money by paying transfer fees.
"And from hereon in, it's important that it's one player in, one player out, and we have got that full agreement and understanding with the squad. We won't be paying transfer fees this season."
Pittodrie 'can hold 9,000' with one-metre distancing
Cormack also said he was optimistic about fans being able to return to the club's Pittodrie stadium next season, though the number of supporters back in the ground is unlikely to exceed 9,000.
He added: "We were thinking limited crowds and then full crowds but as I talk to more people we think it won't go from, in Aberdeen's case, let's say 7,500 to 20,000 available seats. It's more likely to be done in increments.
"We've now done a deeper dive into one-metre distancing at Pittodrie. We think we can comfortably get 9,000 season-ticket holders or fans in if crowds are limited.
"But who knows? After that it might go to 12,000 or 14,000, which is why we said today we'd sell 9,000 season tickets. We won't sell any more."
