Wesley Sneijder and his agent met with Inter Milan officials today in an attempt to resolve his current contract impasse. Basically Inter have told Sneijder that he will not play for them until he accepts a reported 50% cut in his €6m wages.
That is something that Sneijder is not interested in and he issued a brief statement after the meeting confirming that:
“At this moment in time I have no reason to sign,” the former Real Madrid man commented. “How can I accept a new contract under these conditions when I am not even playing?
“As it stands, my decision is to not sign for Inter.”
I cannot understand Inter’s stance here. If they cannot afford to keep Sniejder, just have a quiet word with him and tell him that he will be sold.
Instead by taking this stance, not only are Inter alienating their fans, they are hurting the team as they refuse to play Sneijder.
This morning, Inter’s President Massimo Moratti was asked by reporters about the meeting with Sneijder (which he did not attend), and this is what he said:
What is Inter’s position following today’s talks?
“I’ve spoken to those who attended the meeting, they sounded quite pleased, both parties behaved sensibly, now it’s up to them, it’s up to Sneijder, who is still an Inter player of course. We’ll see.”
Will you attend further talks?
No, this is something which can be resolved easily. If they need me though, I will of course be there.”
Are you kidding me? Inter’s best player is having at a contract stalemate with your club and the President is not going to involve himself into the negotations? Or is that because you think this is ‘something that can be resolved easily” Mr. Moratti?
As if those comments were not disingenuous enough, the Inter boss went on to say that Sneijder has not played been frozen out of the side because he refused to take a pay cut:
“He’s one of our players and he will play, or is at least available, for the Coach and for me. But he’ll play when he is ready and not because his name is Sneijder.”
That statement contradicts the one made by Inter director Marco Branca last month we said Sneijder wouldn’t play again until he signed the reduced contract.
Last week, global footballers’ union FIFPro highlighted Sneijder’s recent exclusion and called for talks about clubs using “blackmail behaviour” to force players into signing new contracts.
Sneijder trained all last week for the first team and was ready to play at the weekend, but was not even named in Inter’s squad for the game. Inter have a Europa League game on Thursday, and I don’t expect him to be named in Inter’s squad for that game either.
