The Professional Footballers' Association (PFA) have called for an urgent meeting with Premier League and Football League clubs. 

They want to discuss the impact the COVID-19 pandemic is having on club and player finances.

Birmingham City became the first Championship club to ask their players to take wage deferrals on Tuesday, during the coronavirus pandemic.

Squad members at St. Andrews earning more than £6,000 (€6,515) a week have been asked to take a 50% deduction in their salary for the next four months.

Football in England remains suspended until the end of April at the earliest as a result of the COVID-19 crisis.

The Birmingham cuts are to be paid back in stages when the season restarts.

It's expected more clubs will follow the lead of Birmingham, which is clearly troubling the PFA.

A statement on thePFA.com reads:

The PFA has called for an urgent meeting with both the Premier League and English Football League to discuss the impact that the COVID-19 crisis is having on the finances of both clubs and players.

As with other industries, the current COVID-19 crisis is having a severe impact on the finances of the game. Several clubs have already approached players with a view to imposing pay deferrals.   

In order to deal with this situation, we have called for an urgent meeting with both the Premier League and the EFL to discuss how we might proceed going forward.

Separately, we have worked closely with the Premier League, EFL and WSL, agreeing on protocols in terms of training regimes and timetables for suspension of group training.

We are also in regular discussions at international level regarding areas relating to contractual stability and the eventual resumption of the leagues.

In these difficult times, there is a strong public consensus for football to be seen as acting in solidarity with other workers and industries affected by the crisis.