Much of Ferguson’s success at Old Trafford in the 1990s was due to a tremendous crop of British youngsters – all of them from the Greater Manchester area.

But even the Scot believes the Football Association system, whereby clubs can only sign young players who live no more than 90 minutes away by car, is flawed and forces clubs to bypass British talent altogether, instead casting their net abroad.

“We and several other clubs are assessed on what we do in Europe yet we’re faced with this parochial system,” Ferguson told The Times.

“The rules state that we have to take the local kids. Admittedly we had a very good crop over those couple of years – (Ryan) Giggs, (Paul) Scholes, (David) Beckham, (Nicky) Butt, (Gary and Phil) Neville – but how many times is that going to happen in one city, whether it is Manchester, Liverpool or Madrid?

“Do you think you’re going to get the cream of the country every year?

“If you’ve got a facility and structure and resources, you should be able to scout the whole of Great Britain. We couldn’t take a boy from Carlisle, for example, or Grimsby. Nor could Liverpool or Arsenal. You’re not helping the young kids in these areas.”

Ferguson believes the regulations preventing clubs recruiting and nurturing players from an early age if they are from the other end of the country will also be damaging to the youngsters themselves – especially at a time when top clubs seem so reluctant to buy players from the lower leagues.

“You’re taking away chances from them (youngsters). We used to have a school of excellence in the north-east. We had to close it when the new system came in. And when is the last time a Premiership team bought someone from the lower divisions?

“We have never been in agreement with the academy system, so we’re biased about it, but if I was a Premiership chairman, I would be asking what is happening to this system.

“They started it eight years ago with the aim of winning England the World Cup. It cost them a lot of money to implement and it has cost the clubs a lot of money as well. I would ask ‘Is it working? Where are all the young boys coming through? Where has it gone?”’

“The academy status is not really good enough for Manchester United in the sense that we don’t really reap anything from it.”

In Ferguson’s eyes, the regulations which supposedly aid the development and production of home-grown English youngsters is doing exactly the opposite – with boys from other parts of the world being signed up instead.

“It’s already starting to decline to the extent that it is worrying. The only thing we can do is look worldwide. That’s why we have built up alliances with other clubs around the world and brought in young players from all over the world – China, Ghana, Togo, America, Brazil.

“The system as it is at the moment doesn’t really give us any choice but to do that.”