The head of England's Professional Footballers Association (PFA) warned Manchester City on Monday their attempts to sign Kaka from AC Milan for a "stratsopheric" salary could damage the sport as a whole.
City, backed by the financial might of Sheikh Mansour, their Abu Dhabi-based owner, have made a reported bid of what would be a world record fee of 108 million pounds (100 million euros) for the 26-year-old Brazil playmaker, who could find himself earning a wage of 500,000 pounds a week.
But PFA chief executive Gordon Taylor believes that if the deal goes through, it will further alienate top-flight football from its traditional fan-base and prompt the same accusations of irresponsible greed which have been levelled against major banks following the worldwide credit crunch.
Taylor also believes signing Kaka would create tensions at Eastlands, with other members of City's squad demanding higher wages, and prompt rival clubs to inflate the worth of any player who wanted to join Mark Hughes's side.
"The fee is in the realms of getting stratospheric," Taylor told Sky Sports. "Whilst he is a quality player, it may well be a rock around Man City's neck in pushing up prices up elsewhere.
"The other players will be wanting to play with him and that would be a real honour for them.
"But the fact is from Manchester City's point of view, it is going to have all the players thinking the gap is too much between my wage and his.
"If things go well then there is no problem, but if not then there will be problems."
Looking at the wider picture, Taylor said: "I'm worried that as a game it looks as if football has no worries.
"In the magic roundabout of football, the game is in danger of being accused of being as reckless as the banks have clearly been in causing massive problems economically in the world.
"It is not a time for any industry to be spending in a cavalier fashion. There's a serious problem with the world and finance. This was perfectly illustrated by the banks.
"They were doing fine and then there was suddenly cavalier spending and it has brought a lot of problems for ordinary people and I don't want that to happen to football.
"It looks as if it is immune from the world financial crisis and the fact is that supporters don't want ticket prices to go up as a result of this."
The signing of Brazil star Robinho and Kaka's proposed move have overshadowed the fact that among City's first-team are the likes of club academy graduates Stephen Ireland and Shaun Wright-Phillips.
Taylor fears though that they could be among the last off the line if City don't change their big-spending ways.
"I worry about the top-class academy that they have at Manchester City that has produced the likes of Stephen Ireland and Micah Richards," he said.
"It is a heck of a lot of money going out of our game.
"At this time I'd feel a lot more comfortable if that money would stay within the game."
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