East Bengal became the first I-League club to invoke force majeure due to Covid-19 and withhold salaries of players and staff for May, the last month of the domestic football season. The first team was informed through individual e-mails on Saturday.
Quess Corps, an Indian business service provider, owns 70% of East Bengal’s football teams. The company, however, has informed the club that it will exit after 2019-20. On April 21, the AIFF ended the season over a month after stopping all football because of Covid-19.
The players, senior and youth teams, and coaching staff were to be paid till end of May. “Salaries for players and staff will be paid for April, it was decided by Quess Corp. We had earlier paid players’ performance bonuses. The players and staff who live in lodgings provided by us can stay there till May 31 as per contract,” said Arindam Mitra, the club’s media manager. The U-13, U-15 and U-18, were disbanded on Friday, he said. All stipends and salaries of youth team coaches will be paid till April, said Mitra.
The monthly salary bill including house rent for the first team and staff was approximately ~1.3 crore. Mitra refused to confirm that.
Soon after, the Football Players Association of India tweeted: “No club can prematurely terminate contracts with players because of the pandemic. There has to be a mutual understanding and the player must agree to it. We are in touch with all the players and will take up this issue on a priority basis with global stakeholders.” FIFPro, the world body for footballers of which FPAI is a member, was tagged in the tweet.
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