German Bundesliga club Bayer Leverkusen have become the latest major football club to introduce pay cuts after players, staff and management agreed unanimously on Wednesday to unspecified wage reductions.
Other German clubs including champions Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, Union Berlin, and Borussia Monchengladbach recently introduced similar wage cuts, as have Spanish sides Barcelona, Atletico Madrid, and Espanyol, and Italian champions Juventus.
"The team is ready to waive part of the salaries in order to support the club in its efforts to financially overcome the corona crisis," Leverkusen captain Lars Bender said in a club statement following a makeshift training session where players trained only in pairs. Team training cannot resume before April 5.
"We again got a very concrete idea in the empty BayArena stadium today about how important the various colleagues are in breathing life into the club and how important each and every one of them is in providing us with ideal conditions to do our job."
Play in the Bundesliga has been suspended since mid-March and the German Football League (DFL) on Tuesday extended the league suspension until at least April 30.
The DFL has also hinted that should play resume in the coming weeks or months, it would most likely be without spectators.
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Barcelona, Juventus and other major clubs to introduce wage cuts
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Lionel Messi and his Barcelona teammates have agreed to take a pay cut as have Barcelona's basketball first team. AFP -
Juventus announced that all first-team players and manager Maurizio Sarri would take a one-third pay cut for the next four months. EPA -
Atletico Madrid confirmed that the first team and staff would be taking pay cuts to help the club continue to pay other workers during the lockdown. AFP -
Espanyol announced pay cuts for sporting staff, including the men's and women's first team, reserve teams and Under-19s. EPA -
Borussia Monchengladbach players have taken a wage cut after the players offered to forgo wages to help other workers at the club. "The team has offered to forgo salary if it can help the club and the employees," the club's managing director Stephan Schippers said. EPA -
Borussia Dortmund confirmed that the first team will "waive part of their salaries", the club announced. AP Photo -
Bayern Munich announced that the first team football squad would take a 20 per cent pay cut. Getty Images -
Union Berlin announced that their first team squad would go entirely without wages, although there was no timescale for how long. Reuters
