The two Manchester sides were reportedly among a quintet of clubs who voted against proposals to close the Premier League transfer window before the start of the season.
According to widespread reports, Manchester United, Manchester City, Crystal Palace, Watford and Swansea all voted against the proposals, which required a two-thirds majority to be adopted.
Burnley also abstained from the vote, meaning that the plan passed by the tightest of margins.
City and United bosses Pep Guardiola and Jose Mourinho had both made clear their desire for the window to close “as soon as possible”, as the latter manager put it last month.
Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore said that the decision, which would not stop European clubs from registering Premier League players after the English window shuts, came from a desire to retain consistency of squads throughout the season.
“Most important was the integrity of the competition between each other,” he said. “So when the 20 are playing each other the idea that you could have a person in your team one week and playing against him the next, or even worse the player not playing because of speculation about him going to another Premier League team so he’s not available for a week or two weeks of the season while the window is open.
“Those were the issues most of the clubs arguing in favour were using, that once the season has started we should know that we can’t possibly sell to another Premier League club. I think they just decided: ‘We’re going to break for the border, go it alone, put our marker down, go with it.’”
