The five-day negotiations that led to Real Madrid's pay cuts Real Madrid Ramos led the way and was followed by others

Barcelona and Atletico Madrid were among the first clubs in Spain to introduce pay cuts in order to combat the coronavirus crisis.

Real Madrid are the latest to join them in imposing these measures, with their players agreeing to a 10 percent reduction to their annual salaries - which could rise to 20 percent if the season isn't completed.

Los Blancos didn't rush into making any decisions over the economic measures they'd take, with talks over pay cuts first starting last Friday.

General director Jose Angel Sanchez was in charge of initiating these talks, focusing just on the club's playing staff.

After he struggled to make much progression over the weekend, the talks continued on Monday and the club agreed that pay cuts had to be introduced.

It was decided that they had to save 100 million euros in the event of the season being cancelled and 50m euros in the event of the season getting back underway.

These figures were reiterated to Sergio Ramos from Florentino Perez and the first-team captain passed on the message to his teammates.

To start with, there were various viewpoints put across by different members of the squad in group discussion via video link.

Not everyone agreed at first, with some asking for those figures to be dropped to five percent.

Then Ramos intervened and, supported by Zinedine Zidane and the likes of Karim Benzema, Luka Modric, Thibaut Courtois, Lucas Vazquez and Fede Valverde, the defender persuaded the entire squad to take a 10 percent pay cut - or 20 percent if the season doesn't restart.

Real Madrid wanted to set an example because, at the end of the day, they're one of the most respected sporting institutions in Spain.

The players have been encouraged to lend a hand in the current crisis and some have made their own donations and gestures to help the cause.

After all, none of them wanted to risk their stability at the club by not agreeing to the proposed pay cuts.