AT last football players are going to be paid what they are worth. The G14 group of Europe's elite clubs have shown fantastic common sense in deciding to give players performance-related pay.

It means that players who earn enormous Premiership wages will no longer be able to command the same salary if their club is relegated.

They will have to get this idea past the players first but those prepared to vote against a plan which will save clubs from going bust should not be in the game in the first place.

Income for clubs goes down massively if they drop out of the Premiership so it is only sensible that the rules are put in place to ensure their expenditure goes down as well.

Clubs are too stupid to do it on their own which is why the likes of Bradford, Leicester, Coventry and Derby are in dire financial trouble and there is hardly a club in the land which is not operating without the kind of heavy duty debt you wouldn't wish on your worst enemy.

So the only way clubs are going to be saved from going down the tubes is by bringing in a system even they cannot mess up.

As well as performance-related pay for players the G14 group which includes Arsenal, Manchester United and Liverpool also want to impose that clubs are not allowed to pay more on wages that 70 per cent of their annual turnover.

It will be easy for clubs to get round that one because they can always give players more money and call it 'image rights' or buy houses and holidays for the players' families.

But clubs who abuse rules which are being brought in as a desperation measure designed to save their very existence do not deserve to stay in business.