“How one or the other football club handles it when contracts of players have expired was already evident yesterday, Tuesday, 30 June, i.e. the deadline. It was announced that third division team Waldhof Mannheim had waived the three players Michael Schultz, Kevin Conrad and Jonas Weik in the last two games of the season.
The trio had not been able to agree on an additional agreement with the club, with which they could still play for the Mannheimers after their contract ended on 30 June.
“Would only have been a waste of money”
In Mannheim there were three professionals. In the case of Italian second division side AS Livorno, on the other hand, the bloodletting is much greater: with 18 players, the club has more than two-thirds of its squad drawn – seven days before the end of the season. Several media outlets had reported on it. Background: The Toskaners are down on the last place in the table and have already written off the class maintenance with twelve points distance to the relegation place.
Therefore, the club released all players whose contract expired on June 30. “You get the release. We are practically in Serie C, an extension would have been just a waste of money,” Livorno’s president Aldo Spinelli said, according to the football portal Goal.
With fewer than ten players, Livorno’s current squad is not even big enough for a complete line-up. The remaining games should therefore take place with numerous youth players, so that Livorno can play the season to the end.
The club was relegated from Serie A in 2014 and moved to the third division. Two years ago, the club returned to Serie B, where the club will bid farewell in the week with a fuselage squad.
