Clubs could be forced to reveal player wages to all in effort to create a greater transparency on their financial affairs
Liberal think tank CentreForum are hoping to make future financial information available to the Premier League and Football League as well as fans
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Your support makes all the difference.Clubs should publish salaries of all players and managers to make the running of the game more transparent, according to a report from CentreForum, the liberal think tank.
The report also calls for the future financial information that club owners must provide to the Premier League and Football League to be available to fans.
It adds that the Football Association should be subject to the Freedom of Information Act.
The report, It's All In The Game, points out clubs in Major League Soccer publish their players' wages.
"This has not deterred star players, such as Thierry Henry and David Beckham from playing for MLS teams," states the report.
"It has though afforded the beneficial effect of greater transparency on the issue of players' wages and a greater understanding of the more general standing of the financial affairs of the club - not least because players' wages now form such a major part of their overall budget.
"If it is possible in the USA, it is certainly possible in England."
Payments to individual agents should also be made public, and the ownership of clubs not hidden away in offshore companies.
The report also criticises owners for being able to change clubs' identity without supporters having any say.
"This means that aspects central to the identity of clubs such as kit colour (eg Cardiff City), name (eg Hull City) and even location (eg Wimbledon) are often subject to the whim of one person or small group of people with nothing supporters can do to influence the situation," says the report.
It names Blackburn as a club which as plummeted as a result of new owners taking over.
Fans group Supporters Direct has given its backing to the findings.
Tim Farron MP, president of the Liberal Democrats, has also backed the report saying: "The lack of transparency in English football is alarming and threatens the integrity of our national game. Loyal football fans deserve better."
PA
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