Club moves to free players

His comments came after Paul Dickov, Frank Sinclair and Keith Gillespie were charged with "sexual aggression" for an incident at a Spanish hotel.

Taylor told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "People these days worry that we do have trial by media.

"We should be assuming innocence until proven guilt."

Football is in the eye of the media and so such allegations and incidents as this do get blown up PFA chief Gordon Taylor

The three players, who deny the charges, are currently in custody after three women claimed they were attacked in a hotel, and could face up to 14 years in prison.

Although the claims follow a number of sex allegations against Premiership footballers in recent months, Taylor denied that it reflected a general malaise at the heart of football.

"Football is in the eye of the media and so such allegations and incidents as this do get blown up," he said.

"My members are expected to be role models for youngsters and from that point of view, of course it is a concern if players have gone off track.

"It would be naive to think that we won't have problems because footballers reflect young men ever since time began and in the future.

"The vast majority of players give up time for community work and raising funds for charity, but the media and the reading public isn't interested in that."

Football League chairman Sir Brian Mawhinney told the programme: "It needs to be emphasised that the vast majority of professional footballers are well behaved and professional in their job. They are pillars of their local communities."

But he added: "There is no doubt that footballers now have much more disposable income than historically they have ever had, and there is a minority of players who can't handle that and get caught up in the cult of celebrity.

"I am not trying to argue that there isn't a problem that affects the image of football.

"My guess is that the more of these sorts of incidents that take place, the more pressure there will be on the clubs and more widely to find ways to address it. We can't shy away from that aspect."