The Premier League fear Ofcom's controversial Sky ruling will lead to the world's top players turning their back on England's top flight.
Sky will have to sell on Sky Sports 1 and 2 to rival broadcasters for up to 23% less than the current wholesale price, according to the ruling by the regulator.
The Premier League, who have just signed a three-year £1.782billion broadcast deal with Sky paying £1.62billion of that, are considering a legal challenge believing that the ruling will drive down the value of sport's broadcast rights.
Their biggest fear is that a drop in the money available to the clubs will stop the best players being attracted to the most successful league in the world - and have an impact on the cash it passes on to the rest of football.
A Premier League statement read: "Reduced income from rights sales will be rapidly reflected at every level of sport.
"It will be harder to recruit and retain top talent, youth development will come under pressure, investment in grounds and facilities will be deferred and, in the case of football, the ability to contribute to the rest of the game from the Championship to local parks will be severely diminished."
Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore called the ruling an "ill-judged and disproportionate intervention in the broadcast market" and said it rewarded broadcasters who had shown little interest in bidding for sports rights but still wanted to show it on their platforms.
He added: "We do not rule out a challenge to protect the interests of fans, clubs and the wider game."
The England and Wales Cricket Board, the Rugby Football Union and the Rugby Football League have also strongly criticised the ruling. Yet Sky's rivals such as Virgin Media say the ruling does not go far enough.
Ofcom began investigating the pay TV market in March 2007 after concerns were raised by BT, Virgin Media, TopUp TV and Setanta, which has since gone bust. Ofcom said the decision, after a three-year investigation into the industry, would ensure "fair and effective competition".
The regulator said: "Ofcom has concluded that Sky has market power in the wholesale provision of premium channels. Ofcom has also concluded that Sky exploits this market power by restricting the distribution of its premium channels to rival pay TV providers.
"This prevents fair and effective competition, reduces consumer choice and holds back innovation and investment by Sky's rivals.
"The decisions are therefore designed to ensure fair and effective competition which should lead to greater investment, innovation and choice for consumers."
The current ECB deal with Sky is worth £300million over four years and ends in 2013, and there are already fears that proposals to make the Ashes a listed event - reserved for free-to-air broadcasters - would reduce the value of the rights.
Steve Elworthy, the ECB's director of marketing and communications, said: "We are very concerned about the implications of the decision.
"Broadcast revenues are vital to the health of our game and allows us to fund cricket at all levels.
"A decision like this could lead to less investment in sport. It fails to consider the damage it could cause to sports from the grassroots upwards and that's our biggest concern."
The RFU have a £75million five-year deal with Sky for a whole package of different competitions including England games outside of the Six Nations and Rugby World Cup.
RFU chief executive Francis Baron said there was already pressure on sports rights from the 'listed events' review and the BBC's spending on sport being capped.
Baron said: "Usually these authorities step in to protect the minnows against the sharks. Here you have a situation where they are acting in favour of the sharks against the minnows.
"BT have a turnover of £18billion a year, Virgin Media have a turnover of £4billion a year. The RFU, by contrast, has a turnover of £120million a year. Our turnover is 0.7% of BT's turnover but we are being required to hand over our sports rights to this Goliath.
"We also have this ridiculous situation where listed events are saying 'give BBC more rights' and the BBC is saying 'we are going to spend much less on sport'. The whole situation is a nonsense."
The Rugby Football League get £50million from their 2009-11 Sky deal and RFL chairman Richard Lewis said: "This decision has the potential to adversely affect the amount of money rugby league can secure for television rights and that in turn will decrease the investment the sport makes in its grass-roots."
Sky have also announced they will challenge the ruling.
