UPDATE 2-Argentine soccer chiefs meet as takeover talk grows

* Government planning takeover of broadcast rights-media

* Football bosses meet top presidential officials

* Soccer season to start late due club funding crunch (Recasts with broadcaster reaction, government critic)

By Luis Andres Henao

BUENOS AIRES, Aug 12 (Reuters) - Argentine soccer bosses met government officials on Wednesday following media reports that President Cristina Fernandez's administration planned to take over broadcast rights to games.

The global financial crisis has dried up a major source of funds for Argentine clubs as European teams are paying less to acquire South American players. The clubs have also been accused of mismanaging their finances.

Fernandez's left-leaning government, which has increased state control of the economy, offered to pay 600 million pesos ($158 million) per season to the Argentine Football Federation, AFA, for the rights to televise the games, according to reports in Clarin and La Nacion, two daily newspapers.

That would be more than double what the TSC media group -- a partnership between TyC sports broadcaster media conglomerate Clarin (CLA.BA), was paying before AFA terminated the contract on Tuesday.

Jose Luis Meiszner, the AFA executive secretary, and other federation bosses explained the decision to end the contract in a meeting with Cabinet Chief Anibal Fernandez and other top officials at the presidential palace.

"It would have seemed disrespectful ... to come to ask the government for a subsidy. We've simply come to tell them about the decision, to explain it," Meiszner told reporters at the palace.

He added that AFA chiefs hoped to have a meeting soon with President Fernandez.

After the meeting, TyC President Marcelo Bombau said his company would take legal action this week to try to get AFA to reinstate the contract, and if that fails will file for hundreds of millions of dollars in damages.

"It's deplorable that we have reached this situation, especially because the government monopolized the situation," Bombau told Reuters. "The clubs didn't realize the consequences."

BROKE SOCCER TEAMS

Before cutting relations with TSC, the AFA had sought to get the group to pay more for the rights in a bid to help rescue debt-ridden first-division football clubs, seven of which have fallen behind in paying player salaries.

The start of the season has been delayed by one week to Aug. 21 as a result of the financial problems.

Argentine soccer fans currently have to pay to see most games on cable or satellite television, but many of those games would be broadcast for free if the government took over the broadcast rights.

Nestor Kirchner, the president's husband and predecessor, has said publicly that Argentines should be able to watch more games for free on television.

Critics say it would be a mistake for the government to embark on a possible money-losing venture after the nationalization last year of economically troubled Aerolineas Argentinas, the country's flagship airline.

A government venture in sports broadcasting will just lead to more state subsidies, columnist Mariano Grondona wrote in La Nacion on Wednesday.

Others simply question whether the state television channel has the know-how and technology to broadcast the games or can find a third-party producer quickly.

"Free football is very nice but it doesn't pay for the production," Bombau said. (Additional reporting by Karina Grazina; editing by Paul Simao and Todd Eastham)