Luton chief executive Gary Sweet has revealed that he has already taken a pay cut as talks begin with players to negotiate their wages as the Coronavirus crisis starts to bite.
The Hatters have not played a match since March 7 with all professional football suspended three days later and the season now extended indefinitely.
But with no match-day income, Town have already announced that some staff will be furloughed, with the government paying 80 per cent of those wages.
But Sweet has confirmed that he too has slashed his salary, to help the club navigate uncertain financial times.
“I have taken a cut last month, I was the first person to do it,” the Hatters chief said, adding: “I think it’s really important that I’m the one who takes the cut earliest and the largest, so I did that quite a while ago.”
While the club has moved to reduce its costs in staffing, they were waiting for the outcome of discussions between the Professional Footballers Association (PFA) and the EFL over players’ wages.
Yesterday proposals were announced for players in the bottom two divisions to defer 25 per cent of their wages this month, but Championship clubs have been left to negotiate with their own stars, with discussions at Luton already underway.
Asked if any of the Hatters squad had agreed to follow his lead, Sweet said: “I don’t want to discuss individual details and contracts.
“f any of those people wanted to make comments themselves, then by all means they can do that, but it’s not my job.
“Personal contracts are personal and we’ve always said that at Luton Town, unless it’s a player and it needs to be aired for some reason, we wouldn’t discuss it.”
But player wages make up more than half of Luton’s expenditure and so Sweet said: “We absolutely need to reduce our cost base, and therefore footballer have to help in that.
“Every single member of staff probably needs to help in that in some form. Every supplier probably needs to help in that in some form. If we are to continue healthily after this, then we absolutely have to reduce our cost base.”
