Cisse transfer threatened by credit crunch

France striker Djibril Cisse’s proposed permanent transfer to Premier League club Sunderland could be wrecked by the global financial meltdown after his price tag rose by up to three million pounds.

Cisse is currently on loan at Sunderland from Marseille and the Black Cats had agreed a fee for the 27-year-old when they negotiated his temporary signing last year.

The former Liverpool star, who is currently recovering from an ankle injury, is the club’s leading scorer so far this season with 10 goals.

But sterling’s weakness against the euro has made the transfer much more expensive for relegation-threatened Sunderland and chairman Niall Quinn admitted it is far from certain the deal will go through.

“Djibril’s deal was done correctly in that the decision will be made at the end of the season,” Quinn told the Sunderland Echo.

“Now, he loves it here and he would love to have his future here – we take that as a very good sign. But there are a couple of factors at play here.

“One is that I can’t commit to him until we are safe – that’s economically rather than football-wise.

“I couldn’t give so much of our revenue to Marseille for a starter if we were a Championship club. It would be bad practice. We need to know where we are going before we make a decision.

“The second thing to bear in mind is that sterling has fallen apart since we made the deal, and he’s become about two (2.82 million US) or three million pounds (4.24 million US) dearer since we first agreed the deal.

“So we have to look at that. I’m not saying we won’t do it, I’m saying it has to be looked at.”