14 Jan 2008Scudamore blasts Blatter's quota plan

Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore has rejected Fifa president Sepp Blatter's plans for quotas on overseas players as "unworkable".

In an interview with the BBC, he said any attempt to impose quotas would fail and even if they were introduced they wouldn't necessarily be of benefit to the national team.

"Our responsibility is to put on the best possible show, with the best possible talent on the field and played in the best possible stadia," Scudamore said.

"That is our virtuous circle and from that all else flows. In our view, that sits very comfortably alongside what the England team are trying to achieve.

"We believe that our league has the best players in the world and English players benefit from competing in this environment. Our virtuous circle is capable of producing the 30-40 players that England teams have historically been picked from."

Blatter had proposed limits on the number of foreign players that teams could field - and although he recognises that EU law would make any forthcoming ruling redundant he is hopeful that the "football family" can come to an agreement on its own.

However, Scudamore suggests that the England team would be more likely to flourish if the quality of the players coming through the English system was improved through better coaching methods rather than by giving them greater exposure to first-team football.

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