BRATISLAVA: Seven-time Slovakian football league champions MSK Zilina have been placed into liquidation as a result of financial troubles after the season was put on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The club have terminated the contracts of 17 players who refused the terms of a pay cut.

“The liquidator dismissed the players with the highest salaries and those whose contracts were finishing this summer or winter,” the club said on Monday in a statement.

“We let go of 17 players whose salaries were worth the most,” Rastislav Otruba, the club’s legal representative, told Slovakia’s TASR news agency.

The club had asked players to take a temporary pay cut in order to try and compensate for financial losses after the season was interrupted.

“The proposal was to reduce our salaries by 80 per cent, which was a lot,” goalkeeper Dominik Holec wrote on his Facebook page Monday.

Published in Dawn, April 1st, 2020