30 Apr 2008Lippi puts boot into Premier League

Football Leagues/ Association and Governance | Football Referees, Players, Managers and Media

World Cup-winning coach Marcello Lippi has offered his sympathy to England boss Fabio Capello - as he believes he will find it hard to be successful given his current lack of resources.

While Capello has chosen to praise the quality of the Premier League, noting the strong showing of English clubs in the Champions League this season, Lippi has criticised it for its reliance on overseas stars.

According to Lippi, who led Italy to success at the World Cup in Germany in 2006, Capello simply doesn't have enough players to choose from.

"The problems for a coach happens when he doesn't have many good players at his disposal," Lippi said.

"(Italy coach) Roberto Donadoni has a problem of abundance, while for Fabio Capello it's completely the opposite.

"Capello, for example, has more problems fielding a strong English national team because only 38 per cent of Premier League players are British."

However, Capello sounded more optimistic about the state of the national game when talking at an event organised by England sponsor Nationwide.

"Of course the more English players there are playing for English clubs the better it is for me," he commented.

"But at the same time it's good to see that the good English players tend to play for the good English teams irrespective of the number of foreign players here. The quality comes out."

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