Soccer: Uefa general secretary David Taylor has warned clubs with heavy debts they could be excluded from European competitions.

Football Association chairman Lord Triesman Triesman revealed yesterday that professional clubs in England owe around £3billion (€3.8billion), and claimed that some could be in "terrible danger" as  the economic crisis takes hold.

Taylor shares these concerns and is worried about the problem across the continent and has threatened to take action against any club that fails to deal with serious debts.

"There would be forms of communication, even warnings, even reprimands before one would ever get to a situation of exclusion but it's absolutely possible," Taylor told the Leaders in Football Conference.

Taylor also expressed concern that clubs are putting their futures in jeopardy by exposing themselves to debt that would require a 'white knight' to bail them out.

He said: "We are looking at strengthening the minimal financial criteria and other forms of self regulation that may impose greater standard on clubs that want to compete in European competitions and beyond that club football."

Triesman has called on clubs to review their wage structures as they look to weather the financial storm caused by the global credit crunch.

Despite reassurances from Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore that top-flight clubs were at no immediate risk, the FA chief believes measures to tackle spiralling wage bills could be one way to reduce their financial burden.

Triesman claims salaries are growing by around 12 per cent a year and are becoming an ever greater problem for clubs throughout the English game, and yesterday insisted that an outright cap was "not inconceivable".

"I'll be told, no doubt, that if you want to compete at the highest levels you've got to be competitive in the wages market as well," he said.

"I just make the point that there is a volume of debt which becomes very significant in those circumstances and people need to think about it.

"I'm told by people right through the football pyramid, down in the Blue Square (Premier), for example, that the issues of working with agents, trying to deal with wages right the way through the system is now impacted (by the credit crunch)."

On whether salaries need to be capped, Triesman continued: "People at the clubs are the only people who are going to be able to judge that, but I start with a general proposition that we have, in this business as in so many other businesses, a level of debt which should cause us to stop, think and review where we are."