Rio de Janeiro, Mar 10 (EFE).– Brazil’s professional soccer clubs will be penalized in the standings for failing to pay players on time, the Brazilian Soccer Confederation, or CBF, announced Tuesday.

Under the CBF’s “labor fair play” initiative, offending clubs will lose three points for every match played with salaries in arrears.

Only players, their attorneys and the players association are authorized to lodge a formal complaint with the CBF about missed payroll.

A club will be deemed in violation if it fails to pay salaries within 30 days of the due date, though the CBF will then give the club two weeks to resolve the situation before applying the point deductions.

Players have up to 30 days following the end of the season to file a complaint.

The CBF already has measures in place to punish clubs that don’t pay players on time, including fines and bans on new signings.

The Sao Paulo state league adopted a point deduction penalty for salary arrears in 2012, but has never had to apply it.

Salary arrears are a recurring problem in Brazilian soccer. Last year, eight first-division clubs had problems meeting monthly payrolls.

The situation is particularly bad at Santos, which has lost several players since December after the courts ruled they could unilaterally rescind their contracts in the face of the club’s persistent failure to pay them on time. EFE