Roma players volunteer to forgo 4 months' salary

By Fatih Erel

ISTANBUL (AA) - Italian football club Roma's players, the coach, and his staff, on Sunday decided to give up their salaries for the remainder of the season to help their club fight the financial fallout of 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 Italian club said on their official website.

"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," AS Roma CEO Guido Fienga said.

Since March 1, Roma along with other Serie A clubs have not played any game as the Italian government attempted to limit the spread of COVID-19. Italy is one of Europe's worst-hit countries with nearly 179,000 infections and more than 23,600 virus-linked deaths.

Roma’s players and coach volunteered not to take their salary for March, April, May and June, the club said.

In a letter to the CEO, they wrote: "We are ready to start playing as soon as possible, giving the maximum to achieve our goals, but we also realize 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."