The Barcelona captain was unhappy with how the situation was handled but confirmed that he and the team-mates are doing all they can to help out.

After tons of speculation, Barcelona have finally confirmed that the first-team players have accepted a huge wage cut due to the coronavirus pandemic. The Spanish giants released an official statement on their website announcing that Messi and Co. will forgo over 70 percent of their salary amid these troubling times.

Football has been halted due to COVID-19, with Spain suspending the 2019/20 Liga season indefinitely in a bid to bring the virus under control. However, this brings a huge concern for the several employees and parties who depend on Matchday revenue and day-to-day activity for income.

This is not a financial disadvantage specific to the Catalan giants – Juventus have also announce wage cuts for their first-team players. As a result, the Blaugrana came to an agreement, with members of the board of directors also wavering portions of their income to help the “non-sporting staff” make an income during these troubling times.

“The FC Barcelona Board of Directors, the members of all of the professional sports teams and most of the basketball team have reached an agreement for a reduction in their salaries during the period of the state of alarm due to Covid-19,” the club announced.

In the case of the football first team, the reduction will be over 70% of that originally agreed with the club. This additional contribution by the team, together with the contribution that the club itself shall make, will guarantee 100% of the salaries of all non-sporting staff at the club, which will be submitted for ERTE (temporary redundancy) this week.

The club wishes to express its gratitude to all of the professional athletes for their implication in such an exceptional situation that has been caused by this health crisis.”

Club captain Lionel Messi took to social media to announce this decision as well, but the Argentine ace hit out at the board regarding the negative reports that surrounded the first-team players and the delay in announcing wage cuts. He said: 

“It doesn’t cease to surprise us that within the club there were those who tried to put us under the limelight and add pressure for us to do exactly what we intended.

“On our behalf, it’s time to announce that, besides reducing our wage by 70 per cent during the State of Emergency we’ll also contribute so that club employees can count on 100 per cent of their salary as long as the current situation doesn’t change.

“The reason we hadn’t made this public was our need to find real solutions in order to help the club, but also those most affected by this situation.”

Check out his statement in full in the tweet below.