Mohun Bagan await lockdown relaxation to process players' salaries

Several Mariners have penned letters to the management seeking a month's dues.

Mohun Bagan are the latest club to be entangled in a problem with paying their players’ salaries and have asked the players for some more time for the lockdown restrictions to be lifted before the payments are fully made.

According to Goal, the Indian players have not received their salaries for the past three months and the foreigners are yet to receive their wages for one month as well. This forced the players to write a letter to the club demanding their due salaries even after it’s been almost two months since they last played a game in the I-League.

The players are also yet to receive their league-winning incentives as promised by the club, after being officially awarded the title recently. However, a response from the club has assured foreign players that they will receive their salaries by May 31. No similar guarantees have been made to the Indian players as of yet.

The Mariners’ players penned a letter to the management asking for at least one month of salaries being paid by May 15, as well as a deadline for when the incentives (including performance-related bonuses) will be paid to them.

Moreover, the players have also threatened that they will file an official complaint to the All India Football Federation (AIFF) if these demands are not met by the club's management. Club official Debasish Dutta spoke to Goal on the matter and suggested the payments will be made in full once the lockdown in Mumbai is eased, to free up funds.

He said, “The players have written to us. We will pay the players and even their incentives will be paid in full. Our sponsors are stuck in Mumbai and until the situation there improves it will be difficult for them to pay us."

“We have been told that once the lockdown in Mumbai gets lifted, they will pay within a week. As soon as we receive the money, we will release it to the players.”

When it comes to the incentives, he said, “As far as the incentives are concerned, we will pay those as soon as the AIFF give us the prize money.”

Of course, Mohun Bagan aren’t the only club in a fix over players' payments, as I-League clubs East Bengal and Chennai City are also in hot water over downright refusing to pay the players for the entirety of their contracts. They’ve activated the ‘Force Majeure’ clause amid the pandemic and with Quess leaving East Bengal, their players are ready to take matters to the AIFF to get things resolved.

Bagan had a terrific campaign in the I-League, winning the league in dominant fashion in what was their final season in the competition. The Mariners are set to merge with ATK on June 1, so they will want to complete their contractual obligations before that.