Exclusive: Tigers chief calls for a salary cap

The Tigers are one of several clubs in the top flight losing money despite being a member of the richest league in the world.

Lucrative television and sponsorship deals have helped swell turnover at the KC Stadium to around 50m this season.

However, a wage bill that accounts for four-fifths of that figure means City's debt continues to rise just a couple of months after their auditors questioned the club's "ability to continue as a going concern" without fresh outside investment.

Pearson was brought back to the KC Stadium by owner Russell Bartlett when the financial problems were first made public and he quickly stressed that a squad of around 40 professionals had to be cut dramatically to get Hull back on an even-keel.

The hope was that several players would be off-loaded once the transfer window opened in January but that has not proved to be the case.

Pearson, who spent six years in charge of City from 2001, still remains hopeful the wage bill can be slashed before the end of this month due to negotiations being on-going with a number of clubs interested in fringe members of Phil Brown's squad.

But, in terms of the wider picture of clubs losing money despite the huge amounts of money that flood into the Premier League every year, the Tigers chairman is adamant action must be taken sooner rather than later to reign in the biggest cost of all, player wages.

He last night told the Yorkshire Post: "The whole situation with players and agents has got completely out of control, as can be seen by what is happening across the Premier League.

"Our problems stem from the size of the wage bill. It is far too high in relation to our turnover.

"What disappoints me is that with a turnover in the region of 50m, we are still accruing debt. That can't be right.

"We have gone from a turnover of 15m (as a Championship club) and making a profit to a turnover of 50m but losing money.

"I will not discuss what decisions were taken before I came back to Hull but I do firmly believe that a salary cap would have stopped this happening here.

"Clubs have to get a grip on wages and that is why I believe a salary cap would be in the interests of football.

"If a club has a turnover of 50m, for instance, then 55-60 per cent would be an acceptable amount to spend on wages with maybe a further 1.5m to be paid on agents' fees.

"The rest could then be used on improving the infrastructure of the club. It is not rocket science."

The last annual review of football finance by Deloitte revealed that, by the end of the 2007-08 season, the 20 Premier League clubs owed more than 3billion in overdrafts, loans and other borrowings for the first time.

Much of this was made up of 'soft loans' such as the 700m plus Chelsea owed owner Roman Abramovich, which since then has been all but wiped out after being converted into shares by the Russian.

Those figures also revealed that the Stamford Bridge wage bill for 2007-08 stood at 172m with high-earners such as John Terry, Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba all earning in excess of six figures per week.

Such a sum, which is likely to have risen due to Terry being offered a new deal last summer, dwarfs Hull's wage scale, many of the Tigers' more recent signings believed to be in the 20-28,000 per week bracket.

Compared to some of the clubs in the lower echelons such as Portsmouth, who this month were late in paying their players for a third time this season, City's wage bill is low.

However, due to the size of the KC Stadium squad, the overall bill of 38.9m still represents an unmanageable amount.

The idea of a salary cap being introduced has been mooted in the past with UEFA president Michel Platini suggesting a year ago that a limit of 50-60 per cent of turnover be imposed on clubs in the wake of Manchester City's doomed bid to sign Kaka a year ago.

Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore subsequently rejected the call but Tigers chairman Pearson believes the current economic climate together with the negative balance sheets in the English top flight could well prove to be a catalyst for change.

He said: "More and more, there is a feeling within the Football League and Premier League that something has to be done.

"A salary cap would be workable but there are certain people who don't want it.

"It requires strong leadership from the Premier League. Maybe with even the big clubs such as Arsenal, Manchester United and Chelsea having to live within their means, there will be a sea-change in opinion."