The Government has vowed to resist plans being pushed by its French counterpart to introduce a European regulator for sport when ministers meet in Biarritz next week. France is using its six-month presidency of the European Union to argue that European regulators should control financial, training and transfer policy from national bodies in a move that is seen as a thinly veiled attack on the success of the Barclays Premier League.

But Gerry Sutcliffe, the Sports Minister, will state his opposition to the plan to Bernard Laporte, his French counterpart, when they meet on Tuesday before the informal summit in the southwestern France resort.

An early draft of the French plans, seen by The Times, declared that “competitive sport in Europe can go hand in hand with healthy economic competition only if the same financial rigour is required of all participating clubs by a single body overseeing a system of self-regulation for the financial control of the clubs concerned.” The proposals are nominally directed at all sports but the draft paper switches freely between general arguments and those directed at football, suggesting the main target of the plan.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport said: “We recognise that there are a number of pressing issues facing sport in Europe today. Where these issues are being addressed properly at domestic level, we would not support the creation of EU-wide authorities that supersede national authorities. The key principles underlying EU sports policy must be to protect the autonomy of sport and enable national authorities to determine what is best for sport in their country.”

Leading article, page 2