No problems with foreign ownership of clubs - FA chief   

Football Association chief executive Brian Barwick said on Monday the FA had no objections to the foreign ownership of English clubs. The issue is in the spotlight after last week's takeover of West Ham United by an Icelandic consortium made them the sixth club in the 20-strong Premier League to be foreign-owned.

The move came two months after U.S. billionaire Randy Lerner completed his buyout of Aston Villa and follows the foreign ownership of Manchester United, Chelsea, Portsmouth and Fulham.


"This is an emotive issue and the FA has to act according to the law, regardless of opinion," Barwick told the FA's Web site.

"We cannot discriminate on nationality or insubstantial concerns. Football clubs are heavily regulated, not just under football rules but also company law and stock market controls."

Barwick's views are shared by Sports Minister Richard Caborn, who told Reuters last week: "Foreign ownership is not bad per se...many of our companies are foreign-owned.

"The (key) is making sure the rules by which they run those clubs are also ones in which our national interest, our national game and grassroots football are fully considered. "Ownership is not the issue, it's how they're run that's the issue." Barwick said the FA was still looking into allegations made by a BBC TV documentary that illegal payments to managers by agents were prevalent in the English game.

"We are taking the Panorama programme's claims very seriously," he said.

"The FA is investigating the claims involving clubs and managers jointly with the Premier League as they relate to FA and PL rules. We are also investigating the claims involving agents alone."

The FA are meanwhile waiting on a new Premier League report expected next month from former London police chief John Stevens into alleged irregular payments.

In his interim report in October, Stevens said that 39 of the 362 transfers made from Jan. 2004 to Jan. 2006 and examined by his team of investigators required further scrutiny.