Gladbach fans' group to fill stands with 50,000 PLASTIC cut-outs of real fans

Borussia Monchengladbach fans are planning to replace real-life supporters with plastic cut-outs when the Bundesliga resumes - and raise some money for a child's medical treatment in the process.

The German league is suspended until the end of April due to the coronavirus outbreak, and games are expected to be played behind closed doors if and when the season resumes.

One Gladbach supporters' group is giving members the chance to create life-size plastic figures - complete with photos of their faces - that will be placed in the stadium in their places.

'We don't have any concrete expectations but it should be a couple of thousand fans anyway,' said Fanprojekt Monchengladbach (FPMG) club's liaison officer Thomas 'Tower' Weinmann.

For €19 (£16.50) each supporter can have their portrait taken and reprinted on hard weatherproof plastic cutouts.

From each sale, €2 (£1.75) will go toward a fundraising campaign for a boy called Ben to receive treatment for spinal muscular atrophy.

Another portion of the money raised will go toward supporting seven workers in the fan club whose jobs are under threat with no games being played.

'The rest is pure manufacturing and processing costs. With this we're also helping two small companies in Monchengladbach that had to close their shops,' FPMG says on its website.

'We won’t be making any profits, and when the ‘war’ is won, everyone can take home their doppelganger as a reminder of these curious times.'

The league has said it hopes to play out the season in order to ensure TV revenues crucial to the financial stability of clubs.

Gladbach lie in fourth place, six points behind leaders Bayern Munich with nine games remaining.