A controversial plan to boost the number of home-grown players in any one team was approved earlier today by the world football governing body, FIFA, at their annual congress in Sydney, Australia.
The President of FIFA, Sepp Blatter, will introduce a ruling forcing football clubs to field a minimum of six home-grown players in their starting line-ups. The plan was approved by a majority of delegates. If all goes to plan, the ruling will be put in place for the season 2012-13.
Yet the ruling has been widely criticised, particularly by politicians in the European Parliament, because it breaks EU regulations on freedom of movement. Many of the top European sides may also have to consider their options on whether to challenge the decision.
The plan could also seriously affect the performance of the English Premiership’s big teams. Because of the lack of decent home-grown talent, many teams have been forced to look abroad for new players. The number of English players in the Premiership has fallen below 40 per cent in recent years. If it hadn’t been for foreign players, there wouldn’t have been any teams from England challenging for the Champions’ League this year. I believe many suspect that Blatter put forward this plan because of what’s happening in the Premiership.
Imposing such a quota would be immoral, illegal, and totally unworkable. This ruling needs to be exposed for what it is… a sham.
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