Serie A players have agreed to reduce their salaries by 25 percent if their team is relegated to Serie B, as part of a collective agreement reached by the Players' Association.
It is hoped that this step will help clubs move more easily from the elite category to the second league, avoiding the huge financial damage that relegation usually causes.
Lega Serie A president Ezio Simonelli called this a historic agreement that will help create "an increasingly solid, equitable and sustainable football system."
The new contract means that players will automatically take a 25 percent pay cut in the event of the club's relegation from Serie A to Serie B.
Another way to help clubs cope with the income gap from the elite category is the so-called "parachute payment" from current Serie A clubs to those that are relegated from the league.
The majority of the revenue from participation in Serie A comes from pay-per-view television rights. These compensation payments range from 10 to 25 million euros, depending on the length of time the club has been in the top flight before relegation./Express newspaper/
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