The Chancellor, George Osborne, has blamed leading Euro 2012 football championship players – particularly Germany’s and France’s – for the UK’s double-dip recession and for “killing off” Britain’s prospects for economic recovery.

In a stark message to the leaders of the 16-nation football championships, the chancellor said the Euro 2012 players were facing a “moment of truth” if they were not ready to accept the blame for the financial mess he has brought to the country’s economy and he voiced his exasperation at the repeated failure of European footballers to find a permanent solution to the economic crisis facing the continent.

The shadow chancellor, Ed Balls, however said Osborne should not blame Europe’s sportsmen for his own mistakes in handling the economy:

The Chancellor urgently needs a change of course and a Plan B. If we fail to act now over his countless own goals, we will pay a very heavy…