Parma players request postponement of match over unpaid wages

Parma’s game against Genoa this weekend will not go ahead after their players requested a postponement over unpaid wages.

The 1998-99 UEFA Cup winners are in an increasingly perilous financial position, with reports last week claiming they were close to going out of business.

This is the second consecutive weekend that the players have called for the cancellation of a Serie A fixture, after the match against Udinese was postponed last Saturday.

Veteran captain Alessandro Lucarelli told the club website: "We will not play in Genoa. We have requested for the game to be postponed.

"If they don't grant us that, then we will go on strike and we will be given a 3-0 defeat."

The players, who have not been paid all season and have been forced to wash their own kits recently, have been supported by the AIC, Italian football’s players union.

Former Italy International and briefly QPR player Damiano Tomassi, the president of the AIC is quoted on Football Italia as saying: “The Parma players have decided to wait another week to see what Manenti (the club’s president) can do to move forward.

“What’s going on at Parma is an extraordinary situation which requires extraordinary action. At the moment Parma cannot take to the field. We hope this week will bring some hope for Parma.”

Should Parma refuse to play in three more of their fixtures, they will be automatically excluded from Serie A, with their remaining fixtures awarded as 3-0 victories to their opponents.