League action has failed to pull in subscribers for ITV Digital (DaveRogers/Allsport)

But those who will suffer from any scaling down - or, worse, total collapse - of the Nationwide League's deal with the ill-fated television venture are not prepared to be cast as bad guys yet again.

The ITV Sports Channel wants to pay just £50million of the £179m due to clubs over the next two seasons, claiming that fulfilling the original three-year contract would lead to its collapse.

Either situation could leave up to a third of lower league clubs facing liquidation, a doomsday scenario which has prompted stinging criticism from the Nationwide's leading lights.

Football League chairman Keith Harris and chief executive David Burns met with ITV Digital representatives yesterday, delivering a firm message that their members were not for turning on the issue of full payment.

Harris said: 'Nobody should be in any doubt that if this contract is not honoured there will be widespread bankruptcies in many local communities and our national game will be left devastated.

'In such circumstances Carlton, Granada and ITV Digital will bear a heavy financial and social responsibility.'

That stance was endorsed by Millwall chairman Theo Paphitis, who launched a venomous attack on the parent companies behind the digital gamble. 'Granada and Carlton have a business plan from the Ali G school of business,' he said. 'It's got that sort of logic.

'Yet they have spent the last four weeks saying that it is football's fault, that they are only in trouble because of their contract with the Nationwide League.

'There can be no scaling back of what they pay us. They will either shut the company down or pay us in full.

'This is a PR stunt by the chief executives of Granada and Carlton to hide the fact that they are losing £1m a day and they have invested £1billion in this whole project.

'Our contract has only two more years to run, so it's not a constant drain on resources. If they paid us zero pounds over the next two years, it wouldn't make a difference to whether ITV Digital survives or not - whether they invest £1bn or £1.1bn won't matter.

'This is just the ITV companies trying to shift the blame on to football. If Carlton and Granada are going to put football out of business, they should be looking at how much their directors are paid.

'The lesson they can learn is not to allow their business to be run by people without a stake in it. Don't let guys who are only interested in their wages, big lunches and air miles run anything.'

Crystal Palace chairman Simon Jordan, who has put £22m of his own money into reviving the club, is adamant the ITV companies who launched this digital project will meet their obligations. He said: 'Let's be blunt about this, £200m to Carlton and Granada is a drop in the ocean.

'They should not be allowed to wriggle out of it. If the digital channel collapses, then it becomes a relationship issue with Carlton and Granada. When clubs start suffering because of these companies, and the man in the street begins to understand that, believe me their share price will be impacted upon.

'Carlton and Granada are being a bit clever but they have a responsibility to pay out on this binding contract.'

Those sentiments are being echoed throughout the First, Second and Third Divisions, as the survival instinct and a growing sense of outrage provoked clubs to fight back.

The final resort may yet be taking the ITV firms to court, although the time and expense involved prompted one director to say yesterday: 'Even if we won, it would be like the doctor reporting a very successful operation - only the patient died two years ago.'

Birmingham City managing director Karren Brady added: 'It's too early to start pressing any alarm buttons and clearly it's also too early to predict what may or may not happen. But this is clearly a situation that needs to be urgently addressed by clubs.'

Paul Scally, chairman of Gillingham, said : 'We have a binding agreement for a fixed sum and we require that to be paid in full and on time by Carlton and Granada through their ITV Digital company.

'I do not care whether this is enforced legally, politically, morally, or ethically, but it must be enforced for the salvation of the smaller clubs in the Nationwide League.

'If Carlton and Granada have a problem with a business deal they have entered into, then it must be their problem to resolve.'