Barcelona president Sandro Rosell says the club will never be sold.

Rosell says more clubs should adopt their membership model.

"It is a pity," he told the International Football Arena conference in Zurich.

"I don't like it but it's happening. It's the open market. In the Premier League there are no more clubs to be sold so now they are coming to Spain. It has gone so far now, I do not think anything can be done about it.

"Barcelona is not a business, it is a feeling. We are not owned by anybody, we are an association; we do not have 'clients'. I will never put a game on at 12 noon for the Chinese audience. We do want to open up our market but not to forget our roots. While I am the president, Barcelona will never, ever be for sale."

But Rosell was forced to defend Barca's recent decision to sell shirt sponsorship for the first time, having received 166million euros from Qatar in a five-year deal, saying that it was the only way Barca could compete with owner-funded clubs.

"The fact that it comes from a country is no different to a commercial sponsorship," he said.

"If we did not have to fight against competition which has capital, I would never sell anything on the shirt. It would be virgin."