The players and coaching staff at Serie A side AS Roma have agreed to go without four months' salary to help the club through the crisis caused by the COVID-19 outbreak.
Serie A has been suspended since March 9 and it is not known if or when the season will be able to re-start. Roma said in a statement on Sunday that the players would forego the wages they were due to receive between March and the scheduled end of the season in June.
Roma said the players would also top up the wages of other club employees who were placed on the Italian government's social safety net scheme to ensure they received their regular monthly income.
The club management will also give up a percentage of their earnings.
"We always talk about unity at Roma and in volunteering to cut their salaries for the rest of the season, the players, the coach, and his staff, have all proved that we really are in this together," said chief executive Guido Fienga.
"(Club captain) Edin Dzeko, all the players and (coach) Paulo Fonseca have demonstrated they understand what this club stands for and we also thank them all for their superb gesture towards the employees at this club.
Players at Juventus, Parma and Cagliari have also agreed to wage reductions.
However, a Serie A recommendation that similar cuts be made at all top flight clubs has been rejected by the players' union which argues that those at smaller clubs are less able to afford reductions.
Roma said that the if current season resumes and is completed, the players had agreed on an incentive-based plan to be paid "subject to the achievement of certain sporting objectives."
According to Roma, the players told Fiengo in a letter that they were ready to start playing as soon as possible but "we also realise that all this will not be enough to face the economic consequences of the current emergency.
"With the hope of doing something that will help the company to better restart the Roma project that we all share, we offer this financial proposal."
Totti refuses to enter Roma training ground while Pallotta remains club president
Former Italy and Roma legend Francesco Totti said he will not step inside the Roma training ground while James Pallotta remains president of the club.
Totti retired in May 2017 after making 786 appearances for the club and scoring 307 goals, moving into a directorial role at the Stadio Olimpico.
"Look, as long as the situation is like this, I will not set foot in Trigoria," Totti said in an Instagram Live conversation with Luca Toni.
Totti stated that he would only return to the under different ownership and now cannot even bring himself to watch his son Cristian play for the Under-15s.
"Every time I drop Cristian off for training, I stay outside the gate. Sometimes I sit in the car and feel like crying to think that after 30 years, I can't even set foot in there now," Totti said.
"I left and that's that. I still have great friends and they come outside the gate to say hello. Every now and then, my son asks me to come in to watch him play, but I can't do it. That would kill me," he added.
Totti ended his 30-year association with Roma in June last year, hitting out at Pallotta for not sufficiently involving him in decision making.
