Plans for a common European licensing system for football remain on the table as European sports ministers prepare to conclude a two-day summit in France today.

The 27 ministers heard a presentation from Direction Nationale du Contrôle de Gestion (DNCG), the French football regulator, on tighter financial controls that Bernard Laporte, the French Sports Minister, said were needed across Europe.

France holds the European Union's (EU) rotating presidency and Laporte seems determined to establish the principle that only a “super-regulator” can restore fair competition to the sport. “We see European competitions between participants of two or three nations,” Laporte said at the gathering in Biarritz. “Where is the uncertainty in such a sporting contest?”

The DNCG presentation was regarded by critics as a thinly veiled attack on the light-touch financial rules that have allowed billionaire owners to make English-based clubs hugely successful in Europe.

Draft conclusions for the meeting, due to be published today, have been toned down to remove a key phrase calling for “European control of club management” after objections from Gerry Sutcliffe, the Sports Minister, and others. But a reference to the principle of a level playing field that could force clubs to open their books to EU regulators and dramatically cut the permitted level of debt remain in the document, The Times understands.

Although the summit has no formal powers and the EU has no direct power to regulate sport, opponents such as the Barclays Premier League fear that if 27 sports ministers sign up to the idea, a European “super-regulator” may not be far off and Uefa could press ahead with stricter licensing controls for its competitions.

“Certain things are out of hand and we cannot deal with them just on a national level,” Laporte said. Sutcliffe has argued that a proposed paragraph in today's declaration must have the word “national” inserted in a key clause, where ministers back the European Commission to hold a conference on licensing systems to help “implement a self-regulatory system”.

The final conclusions will be issued today after Michel Platini, the Uefa president, has presented his plans to the ministers for a reform of youth training, notably his call for a ban on transfers for players aged under 18, to protect smaller clubs' academies.