ITF president takes 30% pay slash to help ‘job retention scheme’
The International Tennis Federation (ITF) announced on Thursday a range of new measures to help its staff through the coronavirus pandemic, with the governing body’s president David Haggerty taking a voluntary 30-percent pay cut.
The ATP and WTA Tours have been suspended since early previous month and are not scheduled to return until July 13 at the earliest following the cancellation of Wimbledon for the very first time since World Battle II.
The ITF has delayed or cancelled a huge selection of its tournaments, including on the second-tier men’s Challenger Tour and Women’s Environment Tennis Tour, with the inaugural Fed Cup Finals, scheduled for next week in Budapest, also postponed.
The federation said its new “job protection scheme carries a furlough for about half of ITF staff”.
“The problem we are facing symbolizes a fundamental challenge to our organisation and our sport,” said Haggerty.
Other customers of the ITF table will need a 20-percent income reduction.
Lower-ranked professional players have expressed concern more than their short-term futures, with Georgia’s Sofia Shapatava telling AFP previous month that “players lower ranked than 250 will never be in a position to buy food”.
The ITF did not say how it was hoping to help players financially, but that it was looking “in to the various options to support nations and players during these times”.
