Swiss Club Terminates the Contract of 9 Players

DBasia.news –  The impact of the corona virus pandemic is huge for the world and has covered all aspects. World football has stopped, especially in Europe, due to Covid-19 and forced a number of clubs to take extreme decisions.

FC Sion, the Swiss club, are taking steps to terminate nine-player’s contract. Sion was allegedly unable to pay the salaries of these players due to the cessation of football and no income for the club, either from ticket sales or merchandise.

The nine players, quoted from Goal, are: Christian Zock, Alex Song, Pajtim Kasami, Ermir Lenjani, Xavier Kouassi, Birama Ndoye, Johan Djourou, Mikael Facchinetti, and Seydou Doumbia. Their contract was terminated without reason.

Reportedly on Tuesday (17/03) local time, Christian Constantin, President of Sion, sent a message to the players to take a ‘technical unemployment’ agreement that would give them a payment of 12,000 francs or around Rp194 million.

The players were given until Wednesday (3/18) to respond and some of them did not answer – nine players were terminated. Most of those whose contracts were terminated ended in June 2020.

Nevertheless, the one-sided dismissal was considered unfair and received strong protests from the SAFP (Swiss Players Union).

“We hope that this unfair dismissal can be canceled as soon as possible and the conversations will begin with other possible alternatives,” stated the SAFP.

Among those who were fired like Alex Song, Johan Djourou, Seydou Doumbia, and Pajtim Kasami, who’s name has been quite well known in Europe. Song and Djourou, former Arsenal player, Doumbia, former AS Roma striker, and Kasami is the Swiss captain who have played for Fulham and Olympiakos.

Concerns regarding the club’s great financial difficulties as a result of the postponement of football from the corona virus are already present in Europe. In the initial phase of the postponement the situation was still fine, but if this situation continues, clubs with medium financial strength will find it difficult to pay players’ salaries as they have no more income.