28 May 2008Number of English Premier League starters reaches new record low

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

The number of English players to start in Premier league games this season reached a new low of 170 out of 498 (34.1 per cent) according to a study by the BBC.

With Fifa president Sepp Blatter pushing forward with plans to limit the number of foreign players in an attempt to give domestic talent a chance, it looks like there would need to be some major changes in English football in the coming seasons as only West Ham and Aston Villa met the proposed criteria this season.

England manager Fabio Capello hopes that more English players will break through in the next few years.

"At Under-21, and younger national teams, we have a lot of good players," says Capello.

"For the future, I hope next season is not 34% but 40%. It will be better for me and England football."

On average, less than four (3.9) players in each Premier League starting line up were home-grown compared to 7.3 in Italy's Serie A and 6.9 in Spain's La Liga.

Scotland, who just missed out on qualification for Euro 2008 in a group that contained both 2006's World Cup finalists had an average of 6.27 Scottish players in each starting line up with half of SPL teams fielding six or more Scots in every match.

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