Relations between Manchester United and Arsenal continued to deteriorate yesterday when Arsene Wenger hit back at Alex Ferguson's call for a cap on foreign players and the Old Trafford manager's accusation that it would draw the biggest protest from the Londoners.
Ferguson's starting team at Arsenal on Saturday featured only four Englishmen and - with United having committed over €57 million to buying Carlos Tevez, Nani, Anderson and Tomasz Kuszczak last summer - Wenger suggested Ferguson should consider the foreigners' feelings. "It is not very nice to his own foreign players, first of all," he said. "I would not be very happy if I was a foreign player at Manchester United.
"After that, what is behind the comments is not my responsibility. I feel it is down to quality. If you look at the investments of Man United this year, they have invested a lot of money in foreign players.
"I find the whole proposal completely ridiculous," Wenger said. "The thinking behind it, I believe, is to protect the national teams. But it won't protect the best players, it will protect the mediocre ones and you don't win a World Cup with mediocre players, you win it with world-class ones.
"The best English players - the Rooneys, the Owens, the Gerrards, the Lampards - they are all playing for their clubs anyway.
"Fifa are wrong if they think this will improve international football. Look at rugby for example. The Argentina national team - all their players play in Europe, and the national team takes advantage of that. Had they all stayed in Argentina, would they have made the semi-finals? To mix the best with the best makes everyone better.
"I am worried that it could happen. I would say that it's more than 50 per cent likely to be brought in. Fifa is powerful enough to implement the rule internally, if (Sepp) Blatter has the support of the council and his committees. Will it go through or not, I do not know, but it looks as though it could. I have already had many discussions at Uefa and it looks as though it could happen.
"I don't believe one football coach at the highest level would say it's a good idea. A football coach is always confronted with the same problem - he wants to reward good players."
Asked what would happen if the rule were introduced, Wenger added: "First of all we have to fight against it. If you fight it that should buy us some time. During that time you have to adapt to it."
The Gunners boss fears the issue could prove divisive and refused to rule out clubs splitting from Fifa. "Maybe, I don't know what the evolution will be," he added. "I always think that it's the strength of the sport if it's unified at the top level and you do not have a split.
"Because then the rules can begin to change and before you know it you have different sports. So that is dangerous too. If the football bodies don't take care of the sport that could happen and that's a real danger."
Meanwhile, Liverpool's plans to leave Anfield and move to a 60,000-seat stadium were given the green light by city authorities yesterday, the club said. The construction of the €430 million stadium in Stanley Park a few hundred metres from Anfield will begin early next year after revised plans were approved.
The new Anfield, which will be completed in 2011, could hold a lot more than the originally-envisaged 60,000 and another planning application is likely to be submitted once building work gets under way.
Liverpool chief executive Rick Parry said: "We got unanimous approval from the planning committee, which is very gratifying. This gives us the ability to build a structure, and that structure would be capable of taking significantly more than 60,000."
Andrew Johnson has signed a five-year contract that puts him on a par with Everton's top earners.
The deal - signed after the club tore up the five-year agreement he signed less than 18 months ago when he moved to Goodison Park for €12 million from Crystal Palace - ends speculation the 26-year-old striker could be on his way out of the club.
