Uefa will oppose super regulator

Uefa insist they will join the Premier League this week to oppose plans for a European-wide regulator of sport.

The French government are proposing a 'super regulator' of professional sport in Europe, and the plans will be raised at a meeting of European sports ministers in Biarritz on Thursday and Friday.

Leading figures in football, cricket, rugby union, rugby league and tennis met with sports minister Gerry Sutcliffe this morning to register their opposition.

It had been believed that Uefa president Michel Platini was in favour of the plan - and even that Uefa would act as football's regulator and be able to impose rules on English clubs' debts. But William Gaillard, Uefa's director of communications and Platini's special advisor, insists that is not the case.

Gaillard told PA Sport: "Michel Platini has made it clear we do not believe there should be a regulator in Europe that regulates national leagues, because that is the job of each national association.

"Uefa regulate our competitions, Fifa regulates theirs and national associations regulate national competitions.

"We also do not want another level of bureaucracy - we already have a licensing system and we feel this is the best way to engineer more financial transparency.

"We do not believe it would be legal for us to intervene in national competitions, and Michel Platini has made it clear he agrees with [Premier League chief executive] Richard Scudamore when he says there should not be a European agency."

Platini will address the sports ministers on Friday and will not support a Euro regulator.

Gaillard added: "The president will call for a ban on underage transfers, and to stop the raiding of academies worldwide. We feel this is a really dangerous situation which borders on a violation of human rights."

Sutcliffe is also expected to tell his French counterpart Bernard Laporte that the British government alo oppose the plans for a European-wide regulator.