PORTSMOUTH WERE last night accused of threatening the “integrity” of football and the Premier League as the club missed a second, self-imposed deadline to pay the squad their December wages.

Nick Cusack, the senior executive of the Professional Footballers’ Association, was outspoken over the club’s inability to come up with the money and questioned Ali al-Faraj’s ownership of the club.

“When two teams take the field, it’s 11 versus 11 and you would expect all 22 players to have been paid,” Cusack said.

“If one set of 11 has not (been paid) then that can call into question the commitment of that team and therefore the integrity of the game itself.

“That in turn puts into question the very integrity of the league, and this is something we plan to raise with the Premier League and with Portsmouth’s officials when I go down to the club to speak to the players.”

“After three months of payments being late, I think the players are entitled to ask the kind of questions everybody in football is asking.”

The PFA chief executive, Gordon Taylor, said he expected the salaries to be paid by the end of the week but Mark Jacob, Portsmouth’s executive director, said: “It’s all sorted today (Wednesday). If they haven’t received it (the wages) yet they’ll receive it in the morning.”

When told of the PFA’s claim that the players would be paid by the close of the week, Jacob said: “No, they should have the money tomorrow.”

Portsmouth failed to pay September’s wages, when Sulaiman al-Fahim was the owner. They have since missed two more monthly deadlines, plus this week’s two self-imposed dates.

“Portsmouth cannot carry on like this,” said Cusack, on ESPNsoccernet. “I am sure the people we are talking to are honourable and want to sort it out but there is a lack of information about how the club is being run, how the players are being paid and whether they will be paid in the future.

“Our priority is to ensure the players are paid for this month, but because it has been three months now we must find out whether the players will be in this position next month, and indeed throughout the season. I am sure this is concerning the Premier League too, because we all want to uphold the competitive nature of the league and I am not sure it can be (upheld) under these circumstances.

“Contrary to what most people assume, all the players at a club like Portsmouth are not on big money. There is a diverse group there. Yes, there are some hardship cases, which I am not prepared to go into.”