ARE YOU SEEING THIS MR GLAZER?

There are superficial similarities between the Glazers and the Roig family, one of whom is the president of Villarreal. Like the Americans, Fernando Roig is one of three brothers involved in the business of sport. His father was a Valencia director, brother Paco a Valencia president who now promises to take Second Division Hercules of Alicante into Europe.

The third brother is the president at Pamesa Valencia, an established name in Spain's second most popular sport, basketball. The Roigs may share the Glazers' media aversion, but the trio are motivated by a completely different philosophy.

“I do not want to gain money from sport, but to give something which is important to the community," says Fernando Roig, 58.

“My wife does not understand it, but I am serious about my convictions." Given Villarreal's current rise , few doubt him. When Manchester United won the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1991, Villarreal played in a regional league whose average attendance was 150 - the norm for a town of 46,000.

Then Roig became president and began spending his ceramics fortune on footballers' salaries. The "yellow submarines" rose quickly, perhaps too quickly given that crowds averaged just 3,000 when they reached the top flight in 1998-99, the season that United won the treble.

Villarreal were subsequently relegated but returned immediately in 2000-01 and have established themselves as La Liga mainstays. In Europe, they won the Intertoto Cup in 2003 and have reached the semi-finals of the Uefa Cup in each of the past two seasons before qualifying for the Champions' League for the first time this season.