Leeds United chairman Ken Bates has branded Liverpool's owners as "jokers".
Bates has led Leeds back into the Championship and has his sights on further progress into the Premiership.
The former Chelsea chairman told the : "Half of the foreign owners don't know what they're doing. Half of them don't have a clue. You can't automatically buy success, not always. You need more than money to be successful.
"Look at those two jokers at Liverpool - Tom Hicks and George Gillett. They meet in some Texan bar and decide they are going to be bestest friends and run a football club together. Do me a favour. That was always a disaster.
"Most of the clubs who are in the s*** are, or were recently, under foreign ownership. Look at them: Hull City, Derby County, West Ham, Notts County, Portsmouth and Cardiff City.
"The trouble is people come into the game and think they can make a fast buck. You can't. You have to build something. You have to do more than just buy players.
"I've been there, done it and sold the T-shirt to someone. There isn't a trick I haven't seen. My policy is quite simple. Apply basic business principles to running a football club - but so many of them don't.
"What happened at Portsmouth was another horrible joke. But I've lost count of the number of people I've met who say they represent the brother or a cousin of some sheik or a sultan who plans to bring me untold millions."
