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Federation must take some blame, say crisis club Parma

By Jacopo Lo Monaco

ROME, Feb 28 (Reuters) - Coach Roberto Donadoni believes financially-stricken Parma have been abandoned by the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) and he wants someone to take responsibility for the situation.

For the second successive week the FIGC have called off a Parma Serie A fixture and Donadoni said the governing body should take some blame.

"No one has taken responsibility for what has happened to us, they (the federation) has allowed the people that have created this disaster to do as they pleased so they should also take some of the blame," Donadoni told a news conference on Saturday.

"We are like a carcass in the middle of the desert and around us there are vultures and jackals."

The FIGC called off Parma's match against Genoa on Sunday after the squad threatened to strike over unpaid wages.

A week earlier the home game against Udinese was postponed because the club could not afford to pay stewards or police.

"We're not playing tomorrow because we want public opinion to know what's going on and not because we can't afford to travel to Genoa," Donadoni said.

The FIGC agreed to call off the Genoa fixture but warned that it was not feasible to continue postponing games.

"Considering the morale of the players I have agreed to postpone the game but I can't do it every Sunday," FIGC president Carlo Tavecchio explained in a statement.

Donadoni and team captain Alessandro Lucarelli said the situation needed to be resolved to safeguard the future of the young Parma players.

"Lucarelli and myself we've had our careers but there are 16, 17 and 18-year-olds who have a bright future in front of them and need to be protected," the coach added.

Bottom-of-the-table Parma have never won Serie A but won two UEFA Cups in 1995 and 1999, the 1992 European Cup Winners' Cup and three Italian Cups in a successful spell between 1992 and 2002.

They finished as Serie A runners-up in 1997 led by current Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti and boasted players such as Gianfranco Zola, Faustino Asprilla and Hernan Crespo.

(Editing by Tom Hayward)