Hearts start cost-cutting as players and staff are asked to take pay decrease

The Scottish Professional Football League was suspended last Friday “until further notice” along with all non-league and grassroots football due to the coronavirus crisis and it could be several months before normality returns to the game.

In order to prevent redundancies at the Tynecastle club, where Northern Ireland internationals Michael Smith, Conor Washington and Liam Boyce ply their trade, owner Ann Budge has taken cost-cutting steps which will reverberate across Scottish football.

In a statement on the club’s official website, she said: “In order to try to prevent a staff redundancy programme and to protect as many jobs as possible, I am proposing to implement a club-wide salary reduction programme.

“We have asked all full-time employees, managers, coaches, players and player back-room staff, with effect from the beginning of April, to accept a 50 per cent cut in their monthly salary. No-one’s full-time salary will fall below the living wage.

“In other words, if the 50 per cent reduction would take anyone’s salary below this threshold, the full-time salary will be set at £18,135.

“Given the uncertainty of the whole situation with which we have been presented, we cannot say how long these measures will be in place.

“We will, of course, be continuously reviewing the situation. Staff and players alike, who feel unable or unwilling to accept this revision to their contracts, will, of course, be offered the option of contract termination.”

Budge explained the background to the dire situation was due to “unprecedented and challenging times.”

She said: “As you will appreciate my priority is the health and well-being of our people and in addition to this, as chairman and CEO of the club, I must also do everything in my power to ensure that we keep our club safe and financially sound.

“The Scottish FA has now suspended football for the foreseeable future and, whilst there is no specified end date to this, it is most likely that the game will not resume until July/early August at the earliest.

“In addition, the latest Government measures regarding social distancing and restrictions on large gatherings, mean that the impacts of this will be felt across our entire business.

“This has two main consequences for the club: There will be no income from matches and all associated business streams whilst football is suspended; There is unlikely to be any income from our non-match day business streams (e.g. events/bar).

“This reduction in income is not sustainable without taking immediate action to cut staff costs and overheads.

“As such, I need to act swiftly and take steps now to ensure that we, as a club, can weather this storm while trying to ensure we are ready to resume operations as and when we move into calmer waters and football restarts.

“I cannot achieve this without the full co-operation and support of all of our key stakeholders, namely staff, coaches, players and supporters.

“I cannot stress strongly enough that we need everyone to get behind the club to help us through this.”

Fraser Wishart, chief executive of PFA Scotland, said: “We have been contacted by our members at Hearts. It would be inappropriate to comment further until we have spoken to them in more detail and spoken with the club.”