Leicester City players are "facing dramatic pay cuts" of up to 40% if the club is relegated this season. The Premier League champion "acted to mitigate the costs of relegation after winning the title last season by inserting wage-reduction clauses into the contracts of those players awarded lucrative deals last summer, as well as those of the new arrivals to the club during the close season." Many of the players "who were instrumental to Leicester’s extraordinary title triumph" -- including Jamie Vardy, Riyad Mahrez, Danny Drinkwater, Kasper Schmeichel, Wes Morgan and Danny Simpson -- were given new contracts last summer, as was Manager Claudio Ranieri. In addition to "substantial pay rises, however, those new deals are also understood to feature clauses stipulating punitive pay cuts in the event of relegation, which is now a real possibility with Leicester only one point above the relegation zone" (LONDON TIMES, 2/7).
Virgin Active, the gym chain controlled by South African investment group Brait, "is offloading 16 of its U.K. fitness clubs to rival David Lloyd Leisure." Virgin Active said that the sale was the "final significant step" in the U.K. to "focus its operations on metropolitan and commuter hubs in its key markets." Virgin Active did not disclose how much it had made from the latest sale, but the company said that it spent more than £14M in the last year upgrading its 12 luxury "Collection" sites in London (FINANCIAL TIMES, 2/7).
