UEFA president Michel Platini has taken exception to the sale of England’s top clubs to foreign investors. In recent weeks Manchester City has been rescued from obscurity by a Middle Eastern consortium that has transformed the club’s fortunes overnight.

City is the most recent English club to go under the hammer to foreign investors, and Sunderland is set to follow suit. With almost half of all Premier League clubs now owned by foreigners , Platini is concerned that foreign investment could give English clubs an unfair advantage on the playing fields of Europe.

“I am worried by this, of course,” Platini told French paper Sud Ouest. “I am trying to alert the authorities but this is the liberalism of the English - what can we do?”

The Frenchman claims to be in favour of greater regulation of European football, along the lines of the French regulatory body the DNCG. Paltini believes that such regulation will create a more level financial playing field for Europe’s top clubs.

“I am in the process of working to put in place a European DNCG . I have meetings lined up with experts to find out what paths we can take,” Platini said.  “And we can’t fix the same rules for everyone simply because the tax system, or the centralisation of TV rights for example, aren’t the same in France and in Spain. These are national problems which I can’t fight against.”