The deal, if accepted, would see players take only a portion of their wages for the next couple of months to help the club reduce its outgoings during the low-income close-season. The players would be repaid the defecit at a later date when the club has enough money.
Relegation clauses
Some players are already due to see their wages go down from the 1st of July due to relegation clauses in their contracts. Those players would take their new pay rate sooner than planned, although they would still be owed the higher part of their wages.
In January, Adam Pearson said: "There are about six or seven who have clauses put in place by the club, but they are not particularly big clauses." The Hull Daily Mail has since put that figure at "more than 10 'middle earning' players," and most recently: "around 14 players."
Under contract
Ian Ashbee, Andy Dawson, Matt Duke, Caleb Folan, Dean Marney and Boaz Myhill are the six remaining under-contract senior players from City's promotion-winning squad, and would logically be the most likely to have reduction clauses in their contracts if they also had promotion increases. Craig Fagan could be on the same terms, having joined City on loan prior to promotion and signing permanently as soon as the transfer window opened in July 2008.
Also still under contract are Will Atkinson, Tom Cairney, Liam Cooper, Mark Cullen, Jamie Devitt and Mark Oxley.
12 players signed after winning promotion are still under contract next season and beyond, according to the details revealed when the joined.
Daniel Cousin, Anthony Gardner and Kevin Kilbane currently have one year left to run on each of their contracts.
Geovanni, Péter Halmosi, Jimmy Bullard and Kamil Zayatte are under contract until 2012.
Kamel Ghilas, Stephen Hunt, Paul McShane, Steven Mouyokolo and Seyi Olofinjana all signed four-year contracts when they joined in the summer of 2009.
Some of these signings in the Premier League, including Bullard and Geovanni, will not see any reduction in their wages after relegation. The club have asked them to accept only 70% of their wages until it is able to repay the owed 30%.
Out of contract
It is believed that Bernard Mendy and Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink have clauses that allow City to release them now, a year ahead of their contracts running their full course.
Nick Barmby, George Boateng and Richard Garcia are believed to be at the ends of their contracts this summer, unless they have triggered undisclosed extensions.
Youngsters Nicky Featherstone, Steve Gardner, Nathan Hanley, Ryan Kendall and John Leonard have also reached the ends of their professional deals.
Jozy Altidore, Ibrahima Sonko and Amr Zaki will be returning to their respective clubs now that their loan deals have finished.
Saving
The wage-bill is currently about £3million each month. If the players, currently in discussion as a group and with the Professional Footballers' Association, agree to defer full pay until the club can afford to settle up, it would bring the wagebill down by a third to about £2million.
Next season
Playing contracts run until 30th June. Once out of contract players are released and relegation clauses come into proper effect, the annual wage-bill for 2010-11 will be £21million (£1.75million per month). Chairman Russell Bartlett says that the aim is to bring that down to £15million (£1.25million per month).
See the players' contracts page for an at-a-glance guide to how long each player is under contract for