Arsenal lead Europe in revolt against Fifa

Europe's leading clubs are threatening to refuse to release players for long-distance international friendlies in the future as the ill-feeling over Brazil's friendly in China next week intensifies.

The G14 clubs – including Arsenal, Manchester United and Liverpool – are furious at losing key players to meaningless friendlies. In the Gunners' case, they face being without their Brazilian midfielder Gilberto Silva for the FA Cup fifth-round tie against Sir Alex Ferguson's United at Old Trafford on 15 February.

In a determined show of strength, the G14 group of clubs have written a forceful letter of objection to Fifa, the governing body of world football, in which they have warned that they may take unilateral action in the future and not release players for friendlies on other continents.

Speaking after G14's meeting in Madrid, the Arsenal vice-chairman, David Dein, claimed that Brazil's match in China is purely a money-spinner for the Brazilian FA.

He said: "A robust letter on behalf of G14 will be sent to Fifa complaining about Brazilian players based in Europe going to China in the heart of our season. It's only now the clubs are beginning to flex their muscles and say enough is enough.

"The friendly will mean that Gilberto will almost certainly not be available for our match against Manchester United as he only gets back the night before. The match is clearly not being played for sporting reasons but for financial gain."

The objection will be too late to prevent Brazil summoning Gilberto Silva plus players such as Real Madrid's Ronaldo and Roberto Carlos for their friendly in China, which has been authorised by Fifa.

However, G14's chief executive, Thomas Kurth, said a warning had been sounded for the future. He said: "We now want to really alarm Fifa because it is very unfair. We will not withdraw players from the game in China but if in the future there is a game taking place in another continent in similar circumstances we may not release them."

Dein said that G14 would also object to Fifa about the Confederations Cup tournament taking place in France at the end of the season, involving the champions of each world region: France, Brazil, Cameroon, New Zealand, the United States, Colombia, Japan, and Turkey.

He added: "It means our French players and others too could be involved until the end of June after a hard domestic season and then be expected to return when pre-season begins in the second week of July. It's ridiculous. They are finely tuned athletes and you cannot run them into the ground and there will be another letter of objection regarding the Confederations Cup going to Fifa."

The Manchester United chief executive, Peter Kenyon, and his Liverpool counterpart, Rick Parry, were also at the meeting, and echoed Dein's sentiments. Kenyon said: "The calendar is increasingly becoming more crowded and we have a duty to our clubs, our fans and our players, and it was a consensus that enough is enough and we have to address the issue.

"We need to sit down with Fifa and Uefa [the governing body of European football] and look at the serious implications of piling more and more games on our players. There are too many friendlies which take our players to other continents in prime league time."

With such a mood among the 18 leading European clubs – three from Spain, Italy, England, Germany, and France plus two from the Netherlands and one from Portugal – it was hardly surprisingly that two other tournaments mooted for the future were given short shrift.

One was the "Golden Cup", the brainchild of a Spanish entrepreneur, which would involve the cream of European clubs in a league running alongside the Champions' League, and the other was Fifa's World Club Championship which may be staged in 2005.

Both were opposed by G14, who confirmed they will continue working to introduce a scheme among member clubs to limit total wages to 70 per cent of turnover.

Ajax's Michael van Praag, a G14 vice-president, denied after the general assembly that a European superleague was likely. The Italian newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport had claimed yesterday that the G14 clubs are considering trying to turn the Champions' League into a two-division "superleague".

"The idea of a superleague has not been discussed and there are no plans to discuss it in the future," Van Praag said.