The Bundesliga’s Champions League clubs have pledged €20 million (£18.3m) to support fellow German teams during the coronavirus pandemic.
Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, RB Leipzig and Bayer Leverkusen will forego their share of the national media revenue and donate the remainder from their own money, the clubs have announced.
The aim is to provide financial support to teams in the Bundesliga and the second division, with the Deutsche Fussball Liga (DFL) to decide how the funds will be distributed.
The news follows moves by Bayern, Dortmund and Borussia Monchengladbach to support their non-playing staff.
Bayern’s players and directors will take a 20 per cent pay cut until football resumes in order to save the jobs of staff holding administrative positions at the club.
The agreement was made after a meeting between senior figures in the club’s hierarchy and captain Manuel Neuer, Thomas Muller and Robert Lewandowski among others.
Lewandowski, Joshua Kimmich and Leon Goretzka have also donated a combined €2m to help support medics and clinics in the fight against the pandemic.
Borussia Dortmund players have also taken voluntary wage cuts, and coaching staff at the club have also accepted deductions from their wages.
Meanwhile, Borussia Monchengladbach announced last week that their players and directors had taken pay cuts after a DFL executive warned that “tens of thousands of jobs” were at stake.
