Football Association chairman David Triesman said yesterday some foreign owners coming into the English game failed to appreciate its traditions and called for more stringent takeover regulations.
Today Manchester City, who have been taken over by the Abu Dhabi United Group, meet Chelsea, bankrolled by Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, in the starkest example yet of the changed landscape of English football.
This week Culture Secretary Andy Burnham said the FA had to "step up to the plate" to address such takeovers and Triesman, a Labour party member of the House of Lords, agreed stricter controls needed to be put in place.
"We want those who run our clubs to do so in the long-term interests of their financial health and sporting success rather than immediate return on investment. Most of us, even the most partisan, want genuine footballing competition where success cannot simply be bought," Triesman said in the Daily Telegraph.
"So club owners, whether English or foreign, have to cherish the history and culture of clubs and their unique place in their communities."
Triesman, a former trade union leader who earlier this year became the FA's first independent chairman, accepts, however, that in the country's open market, controlling or even influencing the ownership of clubs is fraught with difficulty.
"Football has a tier of regulation beyond company law or stock market regulation. However, observing the pace and direction of change and its impact on competitiveness, I am not sure that the existing framework is adequate," he said.
"There is no room for burdensome and symbolic regulation likely to collapse at the first legal challenge. A fresh balance is needed. It cannot discriminate on the basis of nationality but it must be robust on the test of fitness to head our clubs."
Current rules state that anyone wanting to buy a club must be deemed "a fit and proper person". However the phrase has been ridiculed by critics of Manchester City's former owner, former Thailand prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
"Many foreign owners, managers and players have made a huge contribution to our game, but some have not," Triesman said.
"The distinction is between those who invest and respect the values of clubs, and those who are just shopping. It is hard to believe that an owner who thinks it is all right to buy a 'world first XI' has grasped this fundamental point," he said.