Parma players to drive themselves to games if club can't afford bus

ByReuters

Updated 23/02/2015 at 13:03 GMT

Parma's players are prepared to pay for their own transport to next Sunday's Serie A match at Genoa if the club cannot afford a bus, team captain Alessandro Lucarelli said on Monday.

Parma fans (Reuters)

Image credit: Eurosport

Lucarelli said he felt bad on Sunday after the home match against Udinese was called off because the cash-strapped club could not afford to pay for stewards or police.

Parma are bottom of the table with 10 points, the players have not been paid all season and the club, which has changed hands twice in two months, is in danger of not finishing the season.

"It's like being in a film. We've seen everything you could possibly imagine, with four different presidents this season," Lucarelli told Radio Anch'io.

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"When we didn't play yesterday it left me with a bad feeling, it was a Sunday with a bitter taste."

"Today, we are starting our preparations for the match against Genoa and if there isn't a bus we'll get five or six cars together and travel in them. We're prepared to pay for the trip ourselves."

"We are ready to play but want to feel protected, there has to be respect for Parma and not just so the championship is kept in order," he said.

Save Parma

"I'd be prepared to play in Serie D for Parma if it was necessary," added the 37-year-old who has made over 200 appearances.

"After seven years, I feel like this shirt is mine and I'm available to play for this club at whatever level."

Sampdoria president Massimo Ferrero said the other Serie A clubs should get together to help Parma "so that the team can finish the 2014/15 season on the field.

"Italian football cannot remain indifferent to the serenity, the professionalism and the maturity with which the Parma players have faced an extremely difficult situation," he said in a statement on Sampdoria's website.

"I congratulate the players and all the people who work at Parma; I consider them to be heroes."

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