UEFA put on a serious face and talked of disturbing trends in the game while the FA Premier League checked the small print in its fit and proper persons rule. Meanwhile Pini Zahavi was busy on his various telephones yesterday seeing what other pieces of match-making he could do after introducing Kia Joorabchian to West Ham United.

“There are always Premiership clubs looking for investment and I am always talking to people, rich people, who would like to get involved,” Zahavi said. While the football authorities grind slowly into action and contemplate what they should be doing, if anything, the so-called super-agent is already looking to his next bit of business.

If Zahavi is to be believed, Joorabchian is by no means the last leader of a foreign consortium to come shopping for an English football club. As the man who helped to introduce Roman Abramovich and Alexandre Gaydamak to Chelsea and Portsmouth respectively, and someone whom Joorabchian relied on heavily to grease the wheels of business at Upton Park, it pays not to underestimate him.

The question, then, is not whether more speculators will arrive on these shores but what type. Will they be Glazers, seeking to count the pounds and pence, or Abramovichs? Will they be sons of suspected arms dealers, like Gaydamak, or the offspring of Kent car dealers like Joorabchian? We do not know yet what Randy Lerner has in mind for Aston Villa, but whatever the motives of the new owners, there is nothing apart from a criminal record that can stop them coming in.

The Premier League recently tightened up its fit and proper person rules to include “shadow” directors and anyone owning more than 30 per cent of a club, but it is in no position to make judgments on the type of people who should be allowed to invest. Joorabchian cannot be barred simply because the arrival of Carlos Tévez and Javier Mascherano at Upton Park is clouded in suspicion.

“I honestly don’t understand why there has been so much opposition, so many questions about the West Ham deal,” Zahavi said. “It was a sexier story for the newspapers at Portsmouth with Gaydamak’s father (he is wanted for questioning in France), but people don’t keep talking about that.

“You tell me. I can only think it is because the newspapers were caught out by the players arriving at West Ham. The papers like to know exactly what is happening.

“There is no difference between what Roman Abramovich has done at Chelsea, what is happening at Portsmouth and what people are trying to do with West Ham United. These are people who love football and understand football. I can’t say (if there will be a takeover) but their money is as good as anyone else’s.

“The foreign investors are a fantastic service to the Premiership. Because of all these riches, the Premier League becomes more famous and much more attractive. So the foreign television rights are sold for even more around the world and the game is seen by more people.

“Maybe you should ask what is happening to the English investors — and it is that they are not ready to take any risks. In football you always have to take risks and that is what these foreign guys are willing to do.

“I know multimillionaires in Britain who talk about investing in football but they don’t go for it. They have the opportunities. Look at Aston Villa. There were English groups but they lost out to an American.”

As well as more foreign investors, Zahavi also suggested that the English audience should become accustomed to players such as Tévez and Mascherano being owned by companies rather than clubs. Again, the practice is likely to spread while football’s authorities stand on the sidelines and talk about stepping in.

“This is happening more and more all over the world,” Zahavi said. “Around 90 per cent of players in South America are owned by private entities and it is happening more now in Portugal and into Europe.”

It may take months to peel back the layers on the deals that catapulted the two Argentina stars from São Paolo to the East End. In the meantime, Joorabchian will be stalked by innuendo, but he has already threatened his first writ against a national newspaper after an investigation into his business affairs.

For now, his worst crime against English football appears to be an inability to keep quiet and declaring, among other things, that West Ham can be bigger than Chelsea. But if egomania disqualifies a man from running a Premiership club, there are quite a few who have slipped in illegally and some of them are English.

• They say that sport teaches values but there are times, often around transfer windows, when professional football seems to be going out of its way to be a celebration of venality. The worse you behave, the more you stand to benefit.

  William Gallas was rewarded for going on strike by a transfer to Arsenal while Owen Hargreaves behaved decently and was denied a dream move to Manchester United. Some lesson in life, that is.

Explore Football

• Premier League

• Football League

• Scotland

• European Football

• International Football

• TheGame

• Live Match Tracker

• The Fink Tank

• Fantasy Football