Football: Rangers Players Defer Wages Amid Pandemic

Scottish football club Glasgow Rangers players, staff and executive directors have decided to defer their wages for three months amid the negative financial impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

Football clubs around the world are facing the fallout from the outbreak as leagues and tournaments remain either suspended or cancelled.

"Rangers can confirm that First Team players, Manager, coaches and Executive Directors have volunteered to take a salary deferral for the next three months," the club said in a statement late Monday.

Senior players and staff, it added, took the decision to prevent the club's other employees from suffering financially during the crisis.

"All parties volunteered and wholeheartedly agreed to defer wages to ensure that fellow colleagues could continue to be paid their salaries in full. We are proud of the leadership and responsibility taken by senior members of staff, and acknowledge the positive impact that this will have on everyone at Rangers," the statement "ed them as saying.

-Global snapshot

The first cases of the virus were diagnosed in Wuhan, China late last year.

Since then, the virus has swept the globe, infecting at least 1.35 million people and killing nearly 75,000 in 183 countries, according to figures collated by Johns Hopkins University.

In the U.K., the number of confirmed cases has exceeded 51,000 with 5,373 deaths and 135 recoveries.

The country's prime minister, Boris Johnson, is in in intensive care after his virus symptoms worsened yesterday. -