German League chief executive Christian Seifert has launched a scathing attack on Premiership clubs.
Seifert says overspending by the likes of Manchester United and Chelsea is destabilising Europe's prized competition and that a UEFA crackdown is long overdue.
Seifert said: "There is a lot of quality in English football, but does it makes sense that Manchester United has debts of 650million euros and Chelsea 700m euros? In the most recent Champions League semi-final, there were three teams standing on the pitch with debts exceeding 1.5bn euros. What if that were only half a million instead?"
While the last five Champions League finals have featured at least one English team, no German club have won the trophy since Bayern Munich in 2001.
Bundesliga champions Wolfsburg will start as underdogs when they visit Old Trafford on Wednesday. Seifert, Germany's equivalent to Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore, said something has to change.
"I cannot see this going on much longer as it is now," he said. "European professional football is heading in the wrong direction. We don't live on an island. It has to be exciting on the pitch but also has to have some rational financial criteria. I don't understand why this is so hard to do.
"The Premier League earns 1bn euros more than Serie A or the Bundesliga. English clubs haven't succeeded in balancing their spending and income and this concerns me. Is it OK that a club incurs hundreds of millions in losses year after year and can never pay back this money?
"Tickets in Germany cost about 20 euros. There's a 50 per cent discount on season tickets. The Premier League is making about 400million euros in matchday income alone."
