Just ahead of the impending takeover of Liverpool by one of the world’s richest companies, UEFA has turned up the volume on complaints about clubs who spend more money than they make, asking for restrictions on the amount of funds available for transfer fees and player wages. UEFA officials worry that if no action is taken, the Premiership may soon turn into a battle of club-owning oil barons. Dubai International Capital, the firm run by the ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, yesterday began looking at the club’s financials in anticipation of making an offer to buy the club. Backed by one of the world’s richest companies, Liverpool would soon have access to the sort of money spent by Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich. However, takeovers of this magnitude have left the rest of the Premiership wondering if foreign investment will ultimately ruin the game. The North American Soccer League collapsed in part because the richest team, the New York Cosmos, had no curbs on its expenses; it just kept buying the best players until the point where investors lost interest in the rest of the league. “There is no doubt the immediate threat in the short term is a huge increase in the gap between the haves and the have nots, and in the long term lead to inflation in wages and transfer fees and a concentration of power that could destroy the game,” said UEFA communications director William Gaillard. He and other UEFA officials support an initiative that would keep a club’s spending limit tied to a proportion of its revenue. “The more super-rich football club owners there are, the greater the pressure there will be for such rules,” Gaillard said. He added that UEFA prefers to see European clubs adopt the Spanish system, where ownership is spread widely among fans.