European football's governing body Uefa wants the British Government to investigate the growing trend of foreign investors buying into English football clubs.
Uefa's interest is in response to the situation at West Ham United, who have become the latest club to be linked with a takeover.
What is troubling Uefa in particular is the apparent anonymity of some of the investors, and the general lack of transparency involved.
"This is a wake-up call," the organisation's director of communications, William Gaillard, is quoted as saying in the Daily Telegraph.
"The UK Government has a responsibility to start investigating. After all it's a part of the UK economy."
Meanwhile Fifa, the world governing body, is planning to introduce new rules that will guarantee greater transparency by requiring 'mystery' backers to be identified as individuals and not hide behind a company name.
It wants such regulations to be introduced in July 2007.
However, Gaillard said: "We certainly are concerned by what is going on as it seems to be following a worrying pattern.
"The trend is going against what we want to see - more clubs being owned by the community and the people who really care for them."
MSI frontman Kia Joorabchian, the Iranian businessman previously prominent at Corinthians in Brazil, has been linked with a multi-million pound takeover of West Ham.
He helped bring Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano to Upton Park from Corinthians, a deal shrouded in mystery as no financial details have been disclosed.
Joorabchian is a friend of Georgian businessman Badri Patarkatsishvili, who has confirmed his interest in the Hammers.
However, other newspaper reports on Sunday suggested that West Ham's would-be buyer is an Arab whose wealth would apparently make that of Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich look almost like small change.
Goal