List of Clubs Up To Date on Wage Payments Is Released

Since there’s been a whole huge hullabaloo over getting paid this past season, the Players’ Association did us all a favor and released a list of clubs who have paid all of their players in full through the end of April. The list is as follows:

1. Porto
2. Benfica (I guess at least Sven’s recent offer will be valid)

Annnd… That’s all. Yikes. Only two teams out of sixteen in the top flight of Portuguese football are up to date in paying their players’ wages. Even Sporting, the SECOND PLACE CLUB IN THE LEAGUE and supposed “Big Three” team, is late in paying its players. This can’t be good. Who is going to want to come to play in the country if this type of information is readily available and true?

I’m sure with a club like Sporting that there’s a decent explanation for this, but what’s with the other teams? Boavista and Estrela da Amadora have been in the headlines this year almost exclusively due to the fact that they’re more than a month in arrears. With this report, it has come out that, in addition to these two hugely delinquent clubs, Nacional are a full two months behind as well.

I understand that Sporting haven’t seen all the money from Manchester United for Nani so that may be causing a hold up in cash flow, but so much so that they can’t at least afford to pay the guys who put the asses in the seats? Something is seriously amiss here.

I prefer the Goodfellas mentality of “Fuck you, pay me” rather than “Okay, boss, we’ll play, and you ‘promise’ we’ll get paid? Well, that’s good enough for us!” Forget the players who make bazillions, what about the grinders who literally put food on the table with their wages? Where’s the food coming from if they aren’t getting paid? If I were these guys, I wouldn’t step near the field until some reasonable amount of money is made available.

Category: Benfica, Porto, Sporting, Super Liga