Serie A votes to provide crisis-hit Parma emergency funding

MILAN (AP) - Italy's top soccer teams voted to give Parma a 5 million euro ($5.5 million) emergency fund Friday to help the club finish the season.

Sixteen of the 20 clubs in Serie A voted in favor of the measure. Roma, Napoli and Sassuolo abstained, and only Cesena voted against the move.

The measure means last-place Parma should be able to play Atalanta on Sunday, after its previous two matches - at home with Udinese and at Genoa - were postponed indefinitely because the club couldn't pay for basic services such as security and electricity.

Parma has been sold twice this season, players have not been paid in months, and a bankruptcy hearing has been set for March 19.

The club's debts are estimated at nearly 100 million euros ($110 million).

The emergency fund will come from money that clubs pay to the league for fines from crowd trouble and other violations.

After the league decision in Milan, Italian football federation president Carlo Tavecchio was traveling to Parma to formally present the plan to the squad's players. The plan requires Parma to play its next two matches before the bankruptcy hearing.

"We're going to Parma to meet the mayor and players with reasonable offers to propose," Tavecchio said.

Earlier, Italy's tax police confiscated records related to Parma from club headquarters and the league and federation offices.

Also, former Parma president Tommaso Ghirardi and former general director Pietro Leonardi were placed under investigation by judicial authorities for suspected bankruptcy fraud.

Last month, Giampietro Manenti took over as Parma's new owner and president from the Russian-Cypriot conglomerate which had taken control in December from Ghirardi. Agreeing to pay off the club's debts, Manenti paid a symbolic price of 1 euro ($1.12) for the club.