British minister supports foreign quota plan
Reuters - Saturday 26 July 2008, 12:37
LONDON - Premier League clubs should have
a quota of English players to boost home-grown talent, a leading
British government minister said on Saturday.
Andy Burnham, the secretary of state for Culture, Media and
Sport, said in an interview with The Times that he was willing
to campaign for a change in European law to allow a cap on the
number of overseas players in top sides.
"There is an argument for a system of quotas both in terms
of supporting the national team and helping to secure more equal
competition within the Premier League," he told the newspaper.
Sepp Blatter, the president of world soccer's governing body
FIFA, has been advocating the introduction of a "6+5" rule
restricting the number of foreign players who can start a match
to five since last year.
However, despite more than a year of talks with the European
Union, FIFA's plan has repeatedly come up against the bulwark of
EU law which does not allow sports to have rules that restrict
freedom of movement.
Blatter is confident that the law will eventually be changed
and was given an overwhelming mandate at FIFA's annual congress
in Sydney in May to continue to pursue the idea.
Burnham's comments in London follow England's failure to
qualify for the recent Euro 2008 finals in Switzerland and
Austria.
On Friday, England's Italian manager Fabio Capello said he
was at a huge disadvantage compared to other national team
managers as only 35 percent of the players in the Premier League
were English.
Burnham added: "I am not xenophobic in any way but I care
about the health of English football, the state of the
grassroots game, the quality of the competition and the ability
to win of the national team."
Burnham said he was prepared to speak to the EU in a bid to
get the law changed.
"I would be quite prepared to go to Europe and say this is
our proposal, let's see if we can get clearance for this.
Ultimately sport is about national teams. European law should
recognise the special nature of sport and be applied
sensitively."
David Triesman, the chairman of the Football Association
told The Times: "There's a problem that there are too few
players who are eligible to play for England playing in the
Premiership. We have got to look at this and look at this fast."
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