Sir Alex Ferguson, the manager of Premier League champions Manchester United, believes an economic collapse of the sort that hit the business world last year could be just around the corner for soccer.

Ferguson's team will try to retain the Premier League title once again this season, knowing they are competing against clubs such as Chelsea and Manchester City, which have spent hundreds of millions of pounds to compete. Those two clubs, though, at least have the backing of wealthy owners; Europe's biggest spenders, Real Madrid, have funded their summer spending entirely through loans from Spanish banks.

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"I think there is an awful lot of expenditure and you say to yourself: 'Where is it going to end?'" Ferguson said to North West Business Insider magazine. "That is exactly what was happening in the business world two years ago. There were warning signs and everyone knew there were, yet they carried on because it was so easy to access loans.

"In the football world you say to yourself the warning signs are there, but nobody seems to be bothering about it. You wonder where it's going to go and what is going to happen if one major club are to go, to collapse."

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