Manchester United and Liverpool supporters have set aside their long-standing hostilities to come together by calling for tougher ownership rules for English clubs.
The clubs' two biggest fan representative groups have united to issue a rare joint statement urging government ministers to include a much more robust test for owners and directors test of football clubs in a forthcoming white paper.
It follows months of talks between the Manchester United Supporters' Trust (MUST) and Spirit of Shankly (SOS) and comes at a time when the current owners of both clubs are looking at potential sales.
Draft legislation of football governance - which is due to include plans for a new independent regulator - is expected to be published next month.
Both United and Liverpool fans want greater influence going forward in how their clubs are run and better safeguards to prevent their and other clubs from falling into the hands of unfit owners.
It is understood that MUST and SOS - who were contributors to the fan led review last year - wrote to the Culture Secretary Michelle Donelan just before Christmas to raise many of their concerns and wishes. But they are yet to receive any firm commitments from the Department for Digital, Culture. Media and Sports (DCMS), despite their views being welcomed.
In a joint statement, Duncan Drasdo, MUST chief executive, and SOS chairman Joe Blott, said: "By common consent, our clubs are the biggest in English football and, with a combined worldwide fanbase of over 200 million people, they are widely recognised global institutions - in fact perhaps of the most well-known British institutions worldwide.
"That global profile will likely attract many potential bidders, including some whose primary motivations may not respect either the cultural heritage of our clubs or the values and interests of supporters. We think that we should be a matter of importance to the government.
"Just as the government would not allow our most important cultural or heritage assets to fall into unfit or improper hands, it should not allow our football clubs to do so either."
MUST and SOS, who are due to issue a full press release on Wednesday, welcome proposals for a new independent football regulator but fear there is "a danger it will come too late for the country's two biggest and most successful clubs".
The statement adds: "Manchester United and Liverpool fans are the most fierce rivals. If we can come together with common cause then we believe the government can work out a way to ensure its Independent Regulator for English Football (IREF) and stronger ownership rules can be introduced quickly enough to safeguard the future of our two clubs."
MUST and SOS coming together is the most notable show of unity since the collapse of the reviled European Super League (ESL) proposal in April 2021. The Glazers and Fenway Sports Group (FSG), the respective owners of United and Liverpool, both had prominent roles in the plot. Protests by United fans ended up leading to the postponement of a Premier League game against Liverpool at Old Trafford the following month.
Drasdo told Telegraph Sport in November that United face the threat of "another Glazer" unless the government apply a rigorous Chelsea-style audit to any potential takeover at Old Trafford given the failure to introduce a football regulator. Chelsea's buyout by the American billionaire Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital in May last year required government approval after the club's previous owner Roman Abramovich was sanctioned over links to the Russian president Vladimir Putin.
The Glazer, who have been deeply unpopular owners at Old Trafford since their hostile takeover in 2005, hired merchant bank the Raine Group in November to find investors as they explore a potential sale. The news came just weeks after it emerged that FSG were also looking at a possible sale of Liverpool.
