Porto legend Fernando Gomes said FIFA's new regulation of third-party ownership of players will damage Portuguese football.
Last year, FIFA said third-party ownership would be abolished beginning in May of 2015 as football aims to bring an end to a system its critics say is corrupt, though the decision has been challenged in court.
Gomes, among Porto's greatest players and now a member of their board, said such a move to ban TPO would "create increased financial difficulties" for clubs in Portugal, where banks are conditioned to loaning money to football clubs.
"FIFA was pressured by top clubs, who have difficulty with competition from clubs with much lower budgets," Gomes said in an interview with Jornal de Noticias.
"This measure is an attempt to ward off clubs with less power and less resources from the competition."
UEFA president Michel Platini last year called third-party ownership a danger to the game, saying many players were no longer in control of their own sporting careers and often transferred to "generate revenue for anonymous individuals who just want to get their hands on some of the money in football."
Proponents of the system believe it provides a lifeline for clubs with less economic clout, allowing them to compete on more even footing. Under FIFA's proposals, existing agreements with third parties will be allowed to continue until the end of their contractual obligation and any new agreements before the new law comes into play will be subject to a one-year limit.
The English Premier League has already banned third-party ownership, but it remains a common practice in South America as well as in Spain and Portugal.