Sale Sharks players, staff take permanent pay cuts

(Reuters) - Sale Sharks players have agreed permanent pay cuts to alleviate the financial pressures brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Premiership team said on Wednesday.

Several Premiership clubs had told their players and staff to take a 25% pay cut because of the postponement of rugby during the novel coronavirus outbreak.

Top flight clubs voted last week to temporarily reduce the salary cap from the 2021-22 campaign until 2023-2024, with the ceiling for senior players set at 5 million pounds ($6.2 million), down from 6.4 million pounds.

"In order to navigate through these challenging times, Sale Sharks have had to have some difficult discussions to ensure the future of the club for its supporters, players and staff," the club said in a statement https://www.salesharks.com/2020/06/17/sale-sharks-club-statement-3 on their website.

"We're delighted to announce that the club has reached agreement with every single player regarding amended terms to their contracts to facilitate this and that our squad will remain together for the next three or four years."

Sale said that their non-playing team including commercial, coaching and medical staff had also agreed pay cuts.

The Premiership, which has nine rounds of matches remaining, has been suspended since April because of the pandemic but a resumption is provisionally planned for Aug. 15.

(Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in Bengaluru; Editing by Christian Radnedge)