West Ham United players, manager agreed to defer wages

ANKARA

First-team players at English Premier League club West Ham United have agreed to defer a portion of their wages due to the coronavirus pandemic.

West Ham head coach David Moyes, Vice-Chairman Karren Brady, and Chief Financial Officer Andy Mollett have also agreed to take a 30% pay cut.

"The savings created by the measures above will support the entire infrastructure of the Club and enable us to retain jobs and continue to pay 100% of staff salaries," the club said on its website.

On Thursday England's Southampton became the first Premier League club to confirm their players will defer part of their salaries.

Scotland's Celtic also volunteers wage cut

Scottish football club Celtic also announced Friday that their players and manager Neil Lennon volunteered to take a pay cut amid the virus.

"For the period April-June, the club's Chief Executive, Manager, non-executive directors, first-team squad, executive team, and backroom staff, including Academy and Football Operation executives, have volunteered to take a significant reduction in salaries and make deferrals of a significant proportion of their earnings," Celtic said in a statement.

Since originating in Wuhan, China last December, the novel coronavirus has spread to at least 185 countries and regions.

As of Saturday, the number of novel coronavirus cases worldwide topped 1.73 million, according to data compiled by the U.S.’ Johns Hopkins University.

According to the figures, since the emergence of the virus in Wuhan, China last December, over 106,000 people have died while about 393,000 have recovered

British health officials announced Saturday the U.K.-wide death toll rose 917 in the last 24 hours.

The government said 269,598 people have been tested, with nearly 80,000 found positive, of which 9,891 have died.