#INSERT type:image caption:FIFPro wants to end incidents similar to that of Racing Santander, whose players refused to play a Spanish Cup quarterfinal after having gone unpaid for four months. END#
HOOFDDORP, Netherlands -- The international football players' union is pressing FIFA to pass tougher rules against clubs that are late paying wages.
FIFPro's proposal urges clubs to be sanctioned and players freed to terminate contracts after 30 days of non-payment.
Currently, clubs can be 90 days late paying without consequences, the 65,000-member union said on Thursday.
"This is more than fair as the players are currently abused by a flawed system," FIFPro secretary general Theo van Seggelen said in a statement. "Respect for contracts and treating professional footballers like any other employee in a normal workplace environment is not too much to ask, is it?"
Van Seggelen is a member of FIFA's players' status committee which is scheduled to study the proposal in March. Rule changes are approved later by FIFA's Executive Committee.
The issue of late wage payments has affected the integrity of competitions, and unpaid players are regarded as more vulnerable to approaches by match fixers.
Last season, Racing Santander players refused to play a Spanish Cup quarterfinal match after having gone unpaid for four months.
Their second-leg match against Real Sociedad in January was abandoned after one minute when Racing players lined up at the halfway line.
A FIFPro survey of players with eastern European clubs to learn more about match-fixing found 41 percent who responded said clubs did not pay on time.
In recent FIFA judicial cases, players who argued that unpaid pages led them to leave a club and sign elsewhere were judged to have terminated their contracts illegally. Players are typically banned for four months and the signing club is sanctioned with a one-year transfer embargo.