There has been a significant amount of discussion on Sepp Blatter’s latest utterances. To start off with here are some statistics that were provided to me a couple of months ago courtesy of James Pavlick.

“I used the list of FOREIGN EPL players on the www.soccernet.com website.  I considered Wales, Scotland, and N. Ireland as "foreign" as they have their own FAs and national teams.  I listed them by nationality as listed on the rosters on wikipedia.  I excluded reserve players.  I labeled nationality in terms of national team.  For example, I count Arsenal's Eduardo as a Croat as opposed to a Brazilian and Spurs' Kevin Prince-Boateng as German as opposed to Ghanaian.

Here is the list of players by nationality:

26 - France
19 - Rep. of Ireland
16 - Spain
14 - Scotland
13 - Holland, Wales
12 - Portugal, Nigeria
11 - Brazil
10 - Australia, Cameroon, Senegal
9 - USA
8 - Sweden
7 - Germany, Denmark
6 - Ivory Coast, Northern Ireland, Trinidad, Norway
5 - Czech, Argentina, Iceland
4 - Bulgaria, Israel, Finland, Italy, Ghana
3 - Austria, Switzerland, Serbia, Croatia, Slovakia, Poland, S. Korea, Tunisia, S. Africa, Egypt
2 - Greece, Ukraine, Ecuador, Peru, Iran, China, New Zealand, Jamaica, Canada, Congo
1 - Belgium, Russia, Belarus, Paraguay, Mali, DR Congo, Togo

By confederation:
UEFA      -201 (not including England)
CAF      - 56
CONMEBOL - 21
CONCACAF - 19
AFC      - 17 (including Australia)
Oceania  -  2 (not including Australia)”

Here is a press release from MLS on foreign born players and it contains comparisons to other North American sport leagues.

General numbers from the 2006/07 season.

I might just be cynical about this but I don’t believe that Blatter’s stance has anything to do with the benefit of the game at the domestic level. For FIFA it about trying to ensure that the club game does not dominate – something that would impact on FIFAs cash cow the World Cup. As a pure defensive action FIFA instituted the Club World Cup so they have a fallback position at least.

You also have to consider that FIFA and UEFA have paid and continue to pay for their arrogance in dealing with the European Union in the 80s. Both organizations believed that they were above the civil courts and European Union legislation.

The Bosman ruling and others were made by the EU without UEFA or FIFA fully understanding the implications nor realizing that times had changed and that EU regulations had to be adhered to. It is only in the last five or six years that the governing bodies have really understood the need to work with and to influence political policy within the EU.

There is a very good chance that sport will be recognized as being different (the EU have shown sympathy to that position on many occasions) but the current argument goes beyond that. What we are seeing is negotiation on very important wording and it appears that Blatter is pushing for full control through inserting the word “autonomous”.

It is almost inconceivable that the EU would allow UEFA / FIFA to operate autonomously which would essentially provide the soccer bodies with free reign to impose what they wish. (You can see why the IOC would be supporting the FIFA position.) The EU is not about to give up free market regulations (an oxymoron perhaps) for soccer or any other sport – special yes, autonomous I can’t see it. 

The other part of the ongoing discussion has related to the development of young players and how it affects national teams. If – and I am sure that it will not – Blatter’s proposal every come into existence then it will lead to a rapid escalation in domestic players wages.

The Premiership is generally considered to be the best paying league but if the supply of foreign talent was suddenly cut off, the supply of English talent would remain the same but the demand would instantly increase – impact, a rapid escalation in salaries for domestic players.

The ripple or tidal wave – a fall off in standards throughout the domestic league structure. Those that argue that the overall standard would increase more broadly as European players returned home fail to acknowledge the part played by African and South American players.

There is more than enough money in the system to help develop young domestic players. What doesn’t exist is the will to impose such a system in the likes of England. The FA have been cowardly when dealing with the Premiership since the inception in the early 90s and they still are.

The FA should insist on a larger share of the TV money generated by the Premiership and put it into youth development and the grassroots.  That is of course a simplistic solution but the concept is valid – the game in England and other top European countries is awash in cash – there just has to be the political will to spend it differently.