By Harry Peart BBC sports correspondent

Eighteen of Europe's biggest football clubs are meeting in Brussels on Tuesday to discuss the spiralling costs that are threatening the financial future of the game.

The demands for high wages from top players is at the top of the agenda, and the talks are hoping to suggest measures to help clubs withstand the financial pressures that are forcing many clubs deep into debt.

The G14

England: Arsenal, Liverpool, Man Utd France: Marseille, Paris St Germain, Olympique Lyonnais Germany: Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, Bayer Leverkusen Holland: Ajax, PSV Eindhoven Italy: AC Milan, Inter Milan, Juventus Portugal: Porto Spain: Barcelona, Real Madrid, Valencia

The clubs are part of a misnamed, and expanded pressure group called the G14, which includes teams such as Real Madrid, Manchester United, Bayern Munich, Paris St Germain and AC Milan.

But in the present footballing financial crisis, even the big clubs are anxious to control the spiralling costs at a time when money from television is at a premium.

The increasing wages of players has sparked the need for a proposal on cost control.

Vicious spiral

The general manager of G14, Thomas Kurth, says clubs like any other business cannot spend more than they earn.

Kurth says clubs cannot spend more than they earn

But many clubs do exactly that, in a vicious spiral in an attempt to buy lucrative success.

The G14 members are expected to agree a restriction of players wages compared to a percentage of a club's turnover, probably around 60%.

It would be similar to the "salary cap" commonly used in professional sport in the United States.

But the plans are just a blueprint to stop wage inflation to bankrupt the game.

The group has no official status and can impose no sanctions on transgressors.

But they could provide a warning for lesser clubs that in spite of its huge popularity, professional football is still a business.