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A troubled Ukrainian soccer club are trying to pay off debts by giving players luxury properties by the sea.

Struggling FC Chernomorets, who play in the Premier League, have already had to offload all their best players.

And unless they settle outstanding monies owed they could be relegated and disqualified from UEFA competitions.

Sergey Kernitskiy, general manager, revealed his novel solution to the problem of having no cash by saying: "We are offering houses and real estate property near the sea to players to cover salary debts. Costs of those houses are around 67,000GBP.

"We still have debts to top players who have already left the club, and in order to avoid disqualification from UEFA and relegation to lower league of Ukrainian football championship they have to be paid."

Some of the players were earning more than 7,000 GBP a month but wages have already been slashed to 2,000 GBD a month or less for those that have stayed.

The fading club was in 11th place in the top division and last year made it into the quarter finals of the prestigious Champions League.

But lack of funding and sponsors has hit the once famous club hard and they have had to sell all their best players to finance the losses.

In their glory days in the 1990's they were once runners-up in the league and ranked 99th in the world.

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