Xie was scheduled to play against Premier League champion Burnley in a friendly match last weekend. However, Xie's players chose to refuse to play on Wednesday. Today, Xie Wednesday players issued a statement saying that the team refused to play because their salary was owed and hoped that the club would resolve the issue as soon as possible.
Sheffield Wednesday players' statement:
As widely reported by the media, the club's players, coaches and staff members have been affected by wage delays and arrears.
This is a worrying period for our players. While we are often in the spotlight, we are not the only ones affected. We stand united with all our club colleagues affected by this to face difficulties together.
The professional and personal lives of players and staff are now facing tangible impacts. We are extremely concerned about the lack of transparency in the coronavirus situation and are not clear when the problem will be resolved. The player's decision to withdraw from the scheduled friendly match with Burnley was not a hasty move or lack of consideration. We are fully aware that this will increase the uneasiness of the fans, but we believe that we can understand the difficult situation we are in.
We want to assure the fans that we do not have any on the training ground and that no one will be ‘passively slacking off’. We are all doing our best to train, support each other, and support the coaching staff and staff.
However, like you guys, we hope to focus all our attention on the performance on the court and the upcoming new season. This is indeed a very difficult time. We have made it clear to the club that we hope they will resolve this issue as soon as possible and avoid a decision similar to canceling the match against Burnley again. This way we can continue to move forward as a whole.