Bashundhara Kings head coach Oscar Bruzon has showed his great loyalty to the club by offering to take wage reduction amid pandemic coronavirus outbreak.

The 42-year-old Spaniard will take only his daily expenses during the period of lockdown and will take 30 percent pay cut after the football resumes, confirmed club’s president Imrul Hassan.
“He (Oscar) offers us his wage reduction. He will take a nominal figure only for his daily expenses during these days and will take 30 percent pay cut after the football resumes. The talk is still going on, will be finalised next week,” he told daily sun on Thursday.

Bangladesh Premier League Champions Bashundhara Kings club are also talking with its five foreign recruits about the pay cut. Among them, Tajik defender Akhtam Nazarov has offered to take 50 percent pay cut while the other foreign players — Costa Rican forward Daniel Colindres, Argentine defender Nicolas Delmonte, Kyrgyz midfielder Baktyir Duishobekov and Argentine forward Hernan Barcos — are deferring a percentage of their salaries.

“We are also talking with our foreign recruits about the wage reduction. Nazarov will take the 50 percent pay cut. Hopefully, the other foreigners including Colindres, Barcos will defer a percentage of their salaries,” added the club’s president.

BPL was suspended after round six held on March 15 after the government halted all domestic and international events to curb the speared of pandemic. Due to the financial hurdles amid lockdown, most of the clubs demanded to cancel the 12th edition of the league in a virtual meeting of professional football league committee, chaired by committee chairman Abdus Salam Murshedy, held on last week. But the federation extended the date instead of taking prompt decisions regarding it.

The fate of the country’s top tier professional football league is expected to be decided in the next executive committee meeting of Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) next Monday.

“The future of the league will be decided in EC meeting of BFF on Monday. They (BFF) want to resume the league with new rules, but we have rejected it. Let’s see … what will happen? Another thing is BFF is reluctant to take any decision on women’s football league (Tricotex 3rd Women’s Football League. The league almost ends. We have also demanded to take a decision on women’s league,” Imrul further said.
This year, a total of 64 foreign players from around 23 countries are playing for the 13 top-flight clubs. Most of the clubs have been facing financial crises due to lockdown. Some outings Muktijoddha Sangsad Krira Chakra, Uttar Baridhara Sporting Club, Arambagh Krira Sangha, Brothers Union Limited have already released their overseas players.

Sheikh Russel Krira Chakra will terminate its foreigners by mutual agreements as their contracts ended last month while Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club will announce their final decision after getting official announcements from BFF.

Another giant club Dhaka Abahani Limited are also waiting for the official decision from BFF. Their all four foreign booters Nigerian forward Sunday Chizoba, Kyrgyz midfielder Edgar Bernhardt, Egyptian defender Alaaeldin Naser Flsayed Eissa, Haitian forward Belfort Kervens and their Portuguese coach Mario Lemos has been staying in Dhaka.

Dhaka Abahani Team manager Satyajit Das Rupu said, “We will not release our foreign players at this moment. But if they don’t want to stay here, we will release them… We haven’t thought about the wage reduction. We are waiting for the final decision from BFF.”