AS Roma players, coach volunteer to forgo four months' salary amid coronavirus pandemic

Rome [Italy], April 20 (ANI): Italian football club AS Roma's players and first-team coach Paulo Fonseca has volunteered to forgo four months' salary this season amid the coronavirus pandemic.
"The club's players, first-team coach Paulo Fonseca, and his staff, have volunteered to forgo four months' salary this season to help the club navigate the economic crisis that has engulfed the world of football since the Coronavirus outbreak," the club said in a statement.
"The players, coach and his coaching staff have also agreed to collectively pay the difference to ensure that all Roma employees who were placed on the government's social safety net scheme will still receive their regular net salary," the statement added.
AS Roma CEO Guido Fienga praised the decision taken by the players, the coach and the coach's staff and called it a 'superb gesture'.
"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," Fienga said in a statement.
"[Club captain] Edin Dzeko, all the players and Paulo 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," he added.
The club also said that if the 2019-2020 season continues, the club and the players, coach and his staff have agreed on an incentive plan to be paid.
"No country in Europe has been harder hit by the Coronavirus than Italy, with over 23,000 people dead, and with the postponement of Serie A due to enter a third month, Roma's players and coach approached the club's hierarchy to volunteer to forgo their salary during this season for the months of March, April, May and June," the statement read.
"If the current season resumes and is completed, the club and the players, coach and his staff have agreed an incentive plan to be paid subject to the achievement of certain sporting objectives. In the coming weeks, individual agreements with the players, coach and the coach's staff will be finalised, as required by current regulations," it added. (ANI)