Ferguson sceptical over club ownership rules

Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson expressed doubt yesterday over the practicality of imposing regulations on club ownership.

UEFA has been investigating whether there should be tighter regulations on ownership, an issue that has been in the spotlight again this week after the takeover of Premier League club Manchester City by an Abu-Dhabi based company.

"I don't know how you can change that," Ferguson told reporters after a meeting of top coaches at the Swiss headquarters of UEFA.

"For instance, if a team is owned by one or two people and they want to sell it, you can't restrict it. You can sell shares anytime you like at a loss or a gain... it's the nature of the business."

Arsenal coach Arsene Wenger said he was all in favour of tighter regulations.

"Basically football is the most popular sport in the world. It attracts money and that is quite positive," Wenger said.

"But it is down to the football world to regulate that influx of money well so that it makes the game better not worse."

Without singling out City, UEFA general secretary David Taylor said the governing body had been considering the subject of club ownership for some time.

"We are obviously aware of what's been going on and our president Michel Platini has for a number of months been raising this point about the involvement of other businesses in football," Taylor told a media briefing after the coaches' meeting in Nyon.

"We already have a regime of club licensing in place whereby clubs are required to meet certain standards but we are doing more investigation into whether it is possible and whether it is even desirable to regulate these situations even more than present."