Wanderers chairman Phil Gartside today described the widening financial gulf between the Premiership and the Football League as "scary".

Football's rich are getting richer while the majority of the poor are fighting a losing battle to stay in touch.

But Wanderers are tackling the problems head on and are determined to maintain their top flight ambitions.

"We have a business plan that will allow us to compete for a Premier League place," the Reebok chief insisted.

Few clubs are more aware of the alarming gap between the haves and the have-nots than Wanderers. Two spells in the Premiership over the last five seasons - each time resulting in instant relegation - have given them a taste of life on both sides of the financial fence and cost them millions into the bargain!

And, with new TV deals ploughing even more cash into the showpiece league, the contrast is getting more stark with every passing season.

"When we were in the Premier League three years ago, clubs were having to pay £10,000 a week in wages to attract the players that would help them compete with the best," the Reebok chief explained. "That figure is now around £15,000.

"I'm only talking round figures but Premiership wages have gone up around 50 per cent since we were there.

"And the scary thing is that the gap is getting wider."

Successive failed bids to regain Premiership status - Ipswich chairman David Sheepshanks says promotion was worth £12 million to his club - have left Wanderers having to tackle huge problems on the cash front. They have been forced to sell top stars to ease their debts and a business plan agreed between the club's parent company, Burnden Leisure plc, and the bank has seen a significant restructuring of the salary scale.

Wanderers are determined to balance their finances, Mr Gartside explained, to get the business back on an even keel while keeping alive the ambition of a return to the top flight.

Huge debts and high interest payments - around £2 million in the last financial year - are making life difficult but the chairman says Wanderers could be better fixed than most in the future thanks to the business plan and the efforts to boost commercial revenue.

"Our wage bill at the moment is one of the top 10 in the First Division and we are doing that deliberately because we want to get back up into the Premiership," he explained.

"But we are reducing our costs, doing everything we can to get the debt down so that we aren't paying those high interest charges and looking towards having a bigger commercial income. Once that is on stream we will be in a much stronger position."

Ironically, the building of the Reebok, which made Wanderers one of the three largest bank borrowers in the country in the 1998-99 season - Coventry and Middlesbrough were the others - is expected to be their passport to financial stability. The spectacular new stadium, opened in 1997, is already a hive of activity with more ventures planned.

Pop concerts and exhibitions have already made an impact and the spectacular Whites Hotel, which is due to open in October, should be another major source of income once it is up and running.

"Building the Reebok and then the hotel increased our debt burden but we have already relieved that situation and will continue to do so," Mr Gartside added.

"We have sold players and we have had equity money into the company from Ed Davies, David Speakman and Ian Currie (recently appointed directors).

"The hotel and other ideas on the commercial side are going to make us stronger in the future.

"All those things will allow us to pay better wages.

"We cannot lose sight of the fact that we are a public company with shareholders who expect to see the share price grow and a return on their investments.

"But we are making a lot of headway and we have the bank behind us."