The Professional Footballers' Association today took the national game a step closer to industrial action by agreeing to issue members with strike ballot papers.
An emergency management meeting at the PFA's headquarters in Manchester rubber-stamped the distribution of ballot papers to their 3,496 members as the row over TV revenue worsened.
Barry Horne, chairman of the PFA, said: "We have confirmed this morning that the next step will be to ballot the members.
"We'll do that in our own time when we feel everything is in place. We will ensure that it is in accordance with all union legislation." A majority of members would now be enough for industrial action to be given the go-ahead.
Any such action would probably involve a TV blackout, but the matches themselves are likely to still take place.
The union's decision is a last-resort response in their battle over television revenue. They want 5 per cent - the same share they claim they have received since 1955 - of all TV money, a share that amounted to £8.8 million last year.
However under the new £1.65 billion deal won by the Premier League, the PFA are set to have their slice cut to £5.2million - under 1 per cent - and £20 million down on the figure they would have received under last year's rate.
PFA chief executive Gordon Taylor is determined to take the struggle as far as is necessary - even if that means taking the Premier League to the High Court.
He said: "It's highly likely that we'll be taking them on in court. We're fighting for our lives here. This is not about players' wages. It's as if they're trying to destroy the PFA. They are trying to go back on agreements we've had in place for the last 46 years (over players' image rights) and deny they have ever existed.
"This is a collective bargaining agreement between the union and the Premier League. They're saying we will make up the money from the transfer levy, because they want to camouflage the issue.
"This is about the 50,000 former members and the hundreds of youngsters who are told they have no future in football who we have to re-train on university or college courses. What other union would pay for that?"
Several club representatives for the PFA, including Manchester United defender Gary Neville, were called to a meeting at the Midland Hotel in Manchester and were this afternoon formulating a timetable for their action.
"We are in the business of paying over £1 million for the former players, the Peter Osgoods and Tommy Smiths, who need new hips and new knees," Horne said. "Last year our expenditure was over £12 million and what the Premier League are offering is less than 1 per cent. They almost don't want us to have that money."
