Prime Minister Gordon Brown has criticised the number of UK football clubs that have failed to cut back on high levels of debt and has urged owners to consider their responsibilities towards supporters.

Speaking at his monthly Downing Street press conference, Brown stopped short of calling for the government to intervene, but expressed concern that clubs with high debt levels could not generate income needed to "deal with the leverage". Brown said: "There is an issue here for football supporters that over the last few years, a number of football clubs have become highly leveraged and therefore they have far higher levels of debt than the income that they're able to generate from their footballing activities and their television activities.

"Football clubs have to look very seriously at their responsibilities to their supporters. They have high levels of income from their supporters but their debt levels have been at a leverage level that has been too high." Manchester United Football Club, Liverpool Football Club and Portsmouth Football Club are among the number of clubs that have raised concerns regarding financial stability in recent weeks.