Bobby Charlton had a confession to make yesterday at the launch of an alliance between Manchester United and the New York Yankees, two of the world's wealthiest and most powerful sports clubs. No, he did not know the identity of the baseball team's short-stop and biggest star, the American equivalent of David Beckham.

"I'm proud to say, no I'm ashamed to say, I don't know," said Charlton, as a video of The Fergie Years ran silently on two monitors in a Manhattan hotel. "I don't suppose everybody knows who plays for Manchester United either. I don't need to know the names of baseball players."

Derek Jeter, the 26-year-old in question, who is just about to sign a 10-year deal worth $189 million, will be known to Charlton and many more people outside the US if yesterday's deal takes off. The Yankees, the most successful club in baseball history - they have won 26 World Series and three of the past four - and United, Premiership champions in six out of the past eight years, announced a marketing agreement under which each will sell the other's products. "We're not in it to make money," said Charlton, a United director and perhaps the closest English football can come to a Joe DiMaggio. "But obviously we will make money, because that's what we're good at."

The initial understanding between the clubs involves sharing marketing information, developing sponsorship and promotions. United will make a preseason tour of North America in 2003 - there are no plans for the Yankees to play in Britain - and the two will share information about training, fitness and player health. Ultimately, it is thought that United games might run on an American television network.

Soccer in the United States did not receive the hoped for kick-start from the World Cup in 1992 and even the success of the American team in the Women's World Cup 18 months ago is remembered mostly for a player removing her top after scoring a penalty.

The mens game, played under the banner of Major League Soccer, imports faded stars and struggles for a profile among the welter of baseball, American football, basketball and ice hockey contests.

"This is not about exploitation," Peter Kenyon, United's chief executive, said as he clutched a Yankees shirt with his name on the back at the launch of the deal. "We're very cognisant of our responsibility. What runs through Manchester United is not cold cash but a real understanding of our sport and our responsibility to it. This is not a money deal today."

But he did concede that there would be further links between the clubs. "It's about paying the largest for players and investing and you don't do that by saying `let's run up a shedload of debt.' It's yet another example of United taking a ground-breaking step in a new country and a new relationship."

The Yankees are owned by George Steinbrenner, an autocrat who would put to shame even the most peremptory football chairman. Mr Steinbrenner is a convicted felon who rejoices in the title of "the most hated man in baseball" and was pardoned for his financial crimes by then US president Ronald Reagan. His fire has dimmed with the success of recent seasons but still he could not resist describing one pitcher, since departed, as a "fat pussy toad".

The reassuring Charlton said yesterday: "Our club is an institution and we're very careful about who we join alliances with."

However, some Manchester United shareholders are uneasy about the deal. They are concerned about the path chosen by the club in its headlong pursuit of increased commercialism.

Oliver Houston, spokesman for Shareholders United, said: "Following hot on the heels of the Nike deal, there is some unease amongst United supporters that the increasing Americanisation and over-commercialisation of our club will lead to the game moving further from its grassroots.

"Football should not be run solely to suit the needs of foreign broadcasters and overseas marketing juggernauts.

"We hope the alliance between the prawn sandwich and hot-dogs is a success, but urge - as ever - that any increases in revenue be ploughed back into the football club.

"However there have been concerns that the marketing of our club may be over-stretching itself, with the news that the Red Cafe in Dublin has closed and that a similar venue in Singapore is running into difficulties."