Italy shelves 'save soccer' plan

By Mark Duff
BBC, Milan

Berlusconi owns European Champions AC Milan

Italy has been forced to shelve plans for a rescue package for the country's ailing football clubs.

The so-called "save football" decree would have allowed Italy's cash-strapped clubs to spread the cost of their tax bills over several years.

But the measures have been opposed by some members of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's governing coalition.

The European Commission has also warned that the package smacked of government help for an ailing industry.

Berlusconi's warning

The move came after Thursday's cabinet meeting which had earlier been expected to approve the proposals to help the clubs to balance their books by the end of the month.

That is the deadline by when the European football authority, Uefa, says teams must prove that their finances are in order if they want to enter next season's lucrative Europe-wide competitions.

But opposition from the European Commission and several members of the government seems to have put paid to the plan at least for now.

Mr Berlusconi is the owner of Italy's most successful club, the defending European champions, AC Milan.

He has warned there could be trouble on the terraces unless the government helps clubs struggling with big debts - a legacy of the boom days of inflated television revenues and equally big player pay packets.

Events on Sunday seemed to underline his point, when fans of two of the most heavily debt-laden clubs - Roma and Lazio - forced the referee to abandon the Rome derby after a false rumour that a child had been killed by police.

Italy's top players might not be happy either at another suggestion for helping their employers - a wage cut to reduce a pay bill that last season gobbled up 85% of the clubs' budgets.