INTER MILAN PRESIDENT Massimo Moratti insists the club is not blackmailing Wesley Sneijder into signing a new deal, by leaving him out of the side.

The Dutch playmaker has not played for the Italian club since September and club director Marco Branca said that the 28-year-old would not play for the Nerazzuri again until he made a decision on his future.

Sneijder has been presented with a contract offer that involves a pay-cut.

However, Moratti says that any decision on whether Sneijder plays or not rests solely with head coach Andrea Stramaccioni.

“As far as the club is concerned, we are completely open with the player. There is no kind of blackmail,” said Moratti.

“If a contract is valid, it’s certainly valid to ask a person if it can be improved in some way. That doesn’t change the fact that for the time being he’s not playing for technical reasons.

“Obviously no one would want to throw away someone of his value, in whom the club has invested so much. Also it would be counterproductive to pay the wages of a player and then not allow him to play. I believe he is physically and mentally able to play. It depends only on the coach’s choices.”

Former Real Madrid star Sneijder is the highest-paid player at Inter, on a salary of €6m-a-year, and has repeatedly been linked with a move to Manchester United.

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