The European Commission today dealt the sort of blow to Malcolm Glazer's takeover of Manchester United which none of the supporters' groups opposed to the £790 million purchase of the club by the American billionaire could manage when it said it would not support a legal challenge by the club’s new owner against present collective television deals.

United and the other 19 Premier League clubs have a "joint selling" agreement by which they negotiate collectively for the domestic and overseas rights to the competition.

Yesterday, Richard Scudamore, the Premier League's chiedf executive, reiterated his organisation's support of the collective deal. Other leading Premiership clubs, such as champions Chelsea, have also pre-empted any breakaway move by Mr Glazer over domestic TV rights by stressing their opposition. At least 14 of the 20 clubs would have to agree to individual negotiation for either the domestic or the overseas deals. When the then United chief executive Peter Kenyon pushed the issue to a vote two years ago, he was defeated 19 to one.

The EC competitions commission has been in conflict with the Premier League over its television deals before, but their spokesman Jonathan Todd has ruled out any backing from Brussels for a challenge to the principle of joint selling.

"We do not have a problem with joint selling, and we have recently given our blessing to a similar agreement with the German Bundesliga," Mr Todd told PA.

"We have a provisional agreement with the Premier League and we are still talking to them about the terms and conditions of the contracts, but the principle of joint selling is not a problem."

The EC’s main concerns are about trying to prevent a monopoly by a broadcaster rather than a collective agreement by a league - especially since, in previous rulings, Brussels has indicated a sympathertic outlook on having one agreement that covers an entire competition.

Much speculation has revolved around how Mr Glazer intends to finance the £540 million-worth of debt he has incurred to buy Manchester United, with an individual television deal seen as the easiest way of raising revenue at the club.

The domestic deal, with live rights assigned to BSkyB, owned by News Corporation, the ultimate owners of The Times, is worth £341million a year to the 20 league clubs. The overseas contract is valued at more than £100 million annually.

United earned £31.7million from the Premier League last season, of which £30.1million came directly from television and the remainder from sponsorship and licensing.

But the club slumped to fourth in the table of English club earnings last year, with £44.4 million, behind Chelsea (£50.8 million), Arsenal (£48.7 million) and Liverpool (£47.4 million) - the first time since 1992 that the club has not finished in the top two.

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