Premier against Blatter

The Premier League have spoken out against FIFA president Sepp Blatter's bid to challenge European Union employment law and restrict the number of foreign players in club teams.

The Premier League have spoken out against FIFA president Sepp Blatter's bid to challenge European Union employment law and restrict the number of foreign players in club teams.

Blatter wants teams to be limited to playing a maximum of five non-nationals in their starting XIs to encourage the development of home-grown talent.

"Clubs are making huge investments in their academies. Academy players are coming through at first-team level and national-team level," said Premier League spokesman Dan Johnson.

"They have to be at the requisite standard to get into the first team. It's better to have quality youngsters coming through than being forced to play players who quite frankly aren't up to playing Premier League level or even national level."

Imposing such a quota would contravene EU employment law, something Blatter plans to challenge. The issue of sport is on the agenda at the EU summit in Lisbon on October 18 and 19 and both FIFA and the International Olympic Committee are demanding sport be given the power to organise their own competitions.

Currently, the EU say that imposing quotas - such as a maximum of five foreigners in a team, as Blatter would like to see - would breach laws on employment and free movement of labour. Arsenal are one of the clubs that would arguably suffer most if Blatter gets his way.