By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
Maccabi Tel Aviv decided to suspend the contracts and freeze the payments of players until EuroLeague and the ELPA (EuroLeague Players Association) reach an agreement on the salary cuts percentage that will be proposed to all the clubs of the competition.
“Talks between the EuroLeague and the players’ union are held and, therefore, until a new announcement and a solution come, all contracts are frozen,” Maccabi president Simon Mizrahi mentioned in a letter sent to the team’s players, per Sport 5. “We are sorry that we have to take this extreme step, but the situation that is created isn’t a fault of either party. It’s a frustrating situation.”
Mizrahi had previously said that Maccabi will accept the decision that EuroLeague and ELPA will jointly make regarding the salary cuts in light of the coronavirus pandemic. The EuroLeague was suspended indefinitely on March 12.
“We are dealing with a situation I’ve never experienced in my 80 years of life,” Mizrahi also wrote in the letter. “I’ve never imagined a situation where we would have to stay at home and that people of my age wouldn’t be able to meet with their children and grandchildren.”