Manchester United says it will conduct a thorough internal review of all its recent transfer dealings and seek support from the Premier League for new guidelines in dealing with players' agents.
In a statement to the London Stock Exchange, the club said it had received no documentary evidence to support recent allegations about its transfer dealings reported in the media.
The club said it believed its processes and policies were among the most rigorous in football. It added that it had begun to provide additional details on transfer deals from last Friday's purchase of Fulham's Louis Saha.
The statement said manager Sir Alex Ferguson was not involved in financial and contractual aspects of negotiations with any of the first team players, agents or clubs, and pointed out that all deals must be approved by the board of the plc.
Today's statement followed reports that Manchester United's largest shareholders, John Magnier and JP McManus, were reported to have asked its board to look at some of the transactions surrounding recent player transfer deals.
Magnier and McManus hold more than 25% of the shares in the English league champions through their investment company Cubic Expression.
The Sunday Times reported that they had their lawyers write two letters to board chairman Roy Gardner earlier this month in which they questioned the fees charged by players' agents.
'What we cannot understand is the necessity for the relative secrecy in which agents conduct their role and the astonishing fees which have been charged to the company,' the newspaper quoted a January 16 letter as saying.
The newspaper said Gardner's response, that there was nothing of any seriousness to investigate, was followed by a second letter dated January 21.
The Financial Times web site said later that Magnier and McManus planned to call Manchester United to hold an extraordinary general meeting of the football club.
The FT said the pair would press for the appointment of an independent auditor to study player transfer deals and payments to agents over the last five years.
Magnier is currently involved in a legal battle with United manager Alex Ferguson following a row over lucrative stud rights to record-breaking racehorse Rock of Gibraltar.
Ferguson is still in talks with United over an extension to his contract, which is due to expire at the end of next season.
