Players union throws blame on clubs for financial crisis

The international footballers' union FIFPro denied that rocketing wages were at the heart of a growing financial crisis in the sport and threw the blame on club executives.

"We cannot say we are to blame. We are unhappy to discover that certain (club) presidents wage campaigns in the press against the players," FIFPro president Gordon Taylor told a meeting of the organisation in Berlin.

Taylor believes the crisis was forseeable - and suggested the players were having to take the rap unfairly.

"It's not surprising that the people who have sparked this crisis through their own bad management are trying to lay the blame at the door of the players," he added.

Taylor told 114 delegates from 40 countries - FIFA president Sepp Blatter was unable to attend - that clubs who cannot honour the contracts of players deserved to be excluded from competition.

"It's not good for the players, nor for the national leagues, that the clubs continue to participate in their championships. When the clubs are riddled with debt and have run out of cash they should, for a start, be forbidden to recruit new players," Taylor went on.

Dutch representative Theo van Seggelen said the only solution in his view was for the European Commission to become involved in salary negotiations with a view to establishing a collective convention on what players earn - at least in Europe.

He said a round table on the issue was slated for March in Brussels.

Several sides, such as Lazio in Italy, have had problems meeting their salary bill recently as wages spiral out of control.

The Rome-based side's players have not been paid for more than three months because the club is crippled by heavy debts and has been put up for sale by its major shareholder.

Former Serie A giants Fiorentina went out of business at the end of last season after being declared bankrupt.

In England the problems are exacerbated by players signing mammoth deals with a Premiership outfit which then suffers relegation, with a huge gulf existing between Premiership and non-top flight clubs, the latter unable in some cases to keep footing the bill when television and advertising revenue shrink.

In France, former European champions Marseille have had player recruitment put on ice by league authorities after several years of losses running to some 19 million euros - although the club have reined in the deficit and expect to break even in 2004.

Common sense looks as if it may increasingly prevail, however, if Brendon Batson, English Premiership side West Bromwich Albion's managing director, is to be believed.

West Brom were promoted last season but have struggled to impose themselves but Batson says the club will not overspend in an attempt to stay up having seen recently relegated Derby and Leicester go down and endure financial hardship in the process.

"We've managed to cut our cloth accordingly," said Batson. "We are not going to go mad and undermine the club's financial stability.