Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho has claimed UEFA's financial fair play (FFP) rules are protecting the game's established giants and halting newcomers hoping to break into the European elite.
The Blues, Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain are among the clubs to have muscled in alongside the continent's traditional powerhouses with the help of huge investment from overseas owners.
The FFP rules -- introduced during the 2011-12 season -- were put in place to ensure clubs work within their means and do not operate at huge losses subsidised by their benefactors.
City and Chelsea are among those whose transfer plans have been affected by the new rules in the last 18 months.
Earlier this year, Premier League champions City were punished for falling foul of FFP rules, while Chelsea sold Juan Mata to Manchester United in January and David Luiz to PSG over the summer in moves influenced in part by the financial controls.
Mourinho has expressed the belief that the FFP regulations are working against his club, which has won three Premier League titles and a Champions League crown since Roman Abramovich took over in 2003.
"I think financial fair play is a contradiction because, when football decided to go for financial fair play it was exactly to put teams in equal conditions to compete," he said in an interview with Eurosport-Yahoo!
"What happened really with the financial fair play is a big protection to the historical, old, big clubs, which have a financial structure, a commercial structure, everything in place based on historical success for years and years and years.
"The new clubs -- I call them new clubs, those with new investment -- cannot put themselves quickly at the same level. Clubs with new owners cannot immediately attack the control and the domination of these big clubs.
"Chelsea is not an old, historical, huge club, but it's also not a club with a new owner. It's a club with the same owner for more than 10 years. I can say we are a very good club with the ambition to be a great club."
Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger, who has long been a fierce rival of Mourinho's, is among the biggest supporters of the FFP initiative.