Tottenham have reduced the wages of non-playing staff by 20 percent for the next two months, with chairman Daniel Levy hoping players will follow suit due to the financial crisis caused by coronavirus.

Players at Barcelona, Juventus and Bayern Munich are among those to have taken either a significant wage cut or deferred payments during the crisis.

Football in England is suspended until at least April 30 and a meeting of Premier League clubs on Friday is expected to push that date further back.

“Having already taken steps to reduce costs, we ourselves made the difficult decision, in order to protect jobs, to reduce the remuneration of all 550 non-playing directors and employees for April and May by 20 percent,” Levy said in a statement on the Spurs website.

“We hope the current discussions between the Premier League, PFA (Professional Footballers’ Association) and LMA (League Managers Association) will result in players and coaches doing their bit for the football eco system.”

Tottenham earlier this month posted profits of £68.6 million ($85 million) for the year to June 2019 on the back of a run to the Champions League final and their move into a new 62,000-capacity stadium.

However, Levy said those numbers bore little relevance, with the club facing a difficult period and uncertainty among sponsors and media partners.

“When I read or hear stories about player transfers this summer like nothing has happened, people need to wake up to the enormity of what is happening around us,” he added.

“We maybe the eighth-largest Club in the world by revenue according to the Deloitte survey but all that historical data is totally irrelevant as this virus has no boundaries.”

Tottenham sit eighth in the Premier League table and would therefore miss out on the riches of Champions League football for the first time in five years next season if the league were to be curtailed as it stands.

However, economic factors are behind the desire of Premier League clubs to finish the campaign, even if it means doing so behind closed doors.

According to reports, the clubs would have to reimburse broadcasters to the tune of £762 million if the season is not completed.

Meanwhile, Newcastle United have become the first Premier League club to place members of their non-playing staff on temporary leave in response to the coronavirus crisis, the BBC has reported.

The report said Newcastle’s managing director Lee Charnley informed the staff in an email on Monday, saying the decision was taken to safeguard the club’s future.

Newcastle have joined second division clubs such as Birmingham City and Millwall in placing the majority of their workforce, with the exception of players and first-team coaching staff, on furlough.

British finance minister Rishi Sunak announced earlier this month that furloughed workers can claim 80% of their wages up to £2,500 ($3,081) per month as part of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.

Newcastle owner Mike Ashley, who owns a controlling stake in the club, has not always been popular with fans, thousands of whom skipped matches this season to protest his ownership.

Ashley was criticised this month after a number of supporters were charged for their next season ticket, despite the ongoing suspension of the Premier League.

Ashley, who also holds a controlling stake in sports retailer Frasers Group, issued an apology last week for lobbying the government to keep his sports stores open after being told to close them as part of the coronavirus lockdown.

Agencies