Blatter finally just comes out and says it...

[FabregasTED]

"If you ask the fans if they want a strong national team, the answer is yes. If you ask whether they want to see national players in the clubs, they say yes. But they never get a chance to see the players. Look at Arsenal - almost all the players are from outside England. There is no place for the young English players coming through because the clubs simply take players from the wider market. This is damaging to the identity and integrity of football."

I mean he's hinted at it long enough, but is this the first time he's singled us out? Time to retire you old codger.
The ramifications and fallout from his "quota" plan are massive, how does he think he will ever get away with this?

[And_ROOS]

Well, give us some top quality Englishmen and we will play them.

Hell, England should thank us, when we are done training Theo he will win the Poms a World Cup ;)

[DougG_ATL]

Blatter's such a moron. I wouldn't replace anyone on Arsenal's squad with any of the English national team, except for Micah Richards, who I like. The rest of them are all overpaid, overhyped primadonnas. Bottom line, the best talent in football is not coming from England, they're coming to England's leagues from abroad for the challenge and money.

[FLgooner]

I thought that the EU outlawed quotas?

[The Jitty Slitter]

I thought that the EU outlawed quotas?

What was removed was the restriction on only having 3 foreigners. In terms of those within the EU they can work anywhere. But the restriction was actually dropped for all foreigners?

I am imagining this will be a requirement to have a certain number of local players in the squad? So that seems to be slightly different?

[Rewinder]

Why doesn't he subsidize our purchases of english players?

Give us 40 million or so and we will be happy to put Agbonlahor and Richards on the bench.

[Teso Dos Bichos]

I thought that the EU outlawed quotas?

There is a push to classify football as a special case that can exists outwith certain regulations. It is already the case with things such as player contracts and transfer windows.

[Guy Fawkes]

So f*cking stupid. How can you force a club to buy based on nationality? It's not how it works. F*CK OFF BLATTER YOU STUPID TW@T.

[michaec]

The European Commission have already ruled this out a couple of weeks ago.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/7254516.stm

Why is this still news??

[Teso Dos Bichos]

It's still news because it is still clearly on the agenda. Football already breaks numerous EU regulations and it will need to be classified as a special case at some stage.

[zippy85]

Platini's french mate is about to become President of the European Union, he went to meet him yesterday, he will use his influence to change EU Laws on sport which there is already an exception for, so Arsenal and the Premieship are screwed, there's nothing we can do to stop this.:(

http://www.uefa.com/uefa/keytopics/kind=64/newsid=668328.html

[michaec]

No chance, those laws won't be changed to accommodate football. Platini can have his mate at the EU, but almost every top club in Europe would fall foul of the proposed rules and the clubs get what the clubs want.

[The Jitty Slitter]

Remember that the EC/EU is not the arbiter of what the law is.

So football can certainly apply political pressure first, and then pursue legal options second.

[zippy85]

No chance, those laws won't be changed to accommodate football. Platini can have his mate at the EU, but almost every top club in Europe would fall foul of the proposed rules and the clubs get what the clubs want.
The only things the clubs can really do is threaten to have a break away superleague if the law comes in but that would be impossible and the rule would still apply because that league would still be in Europe, Blatter wants to leave a legassy like Blair tryed to do by going into Iraq, its so people will remember Blatter's name as the man who 'Saved Football' when he is long gone, i hope to god he fails.

[zippy85]

Platini now holds talks with the French Secretary of State for European Affairs, Jean-Pierre Jouyet, the day after holding 'positive' talks with the French President and soon to be EU President...

http://www.uefa.com/uefa/keytopics/kind=64/newsid=669734.html?cid=rssfeed&att=index

Blatter now saying the rule will begin with four home players in 2010, then five in 2011 and six in 2012. This is a ruling that will apply to leagues worldwide.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/article3499350.ece

This is the first thing i have done research in regarding football and its making me sick with worry, this is going to completely wreck the Premiership, why didn't they say this when the Italian league was dominating everything because of money, i actually want our teams to lose in Europe now because if they had of done that Blatter and Platini would have left this, Platini even wrote a letter to Gordon Brown to increase tax on premiership clubs because of the money, they are going to get what they want and it starts 2010, the premiership is doomed forever.:(

Blatter and Platini are communists and hate the Premiership.

[Rewinder]

I think it's time all of the big clubs get together, hire a crack legal team and start lobbying against them.

I've never seen such a hypocritical twat in my entire life. He wants to fight for the little guy by sending all the players from poorer countries with less developed leagues, back to fester in their homelands and kill their chances of ever making something of themselves.

It's going to completely destroy every national team other than England, Spain, Italy, France and Germany.

[zippy85]

I think it's time all of the big clubs get together, hire a crack legal team and start lobbying against them.

I've never seen such a hypocritical twat in my entire life. He wants to fight for the little guy by sending all the players from poorer countries with less developed leagues, back to fester in their homelands and kill their chances of ever making something of themselves.

It's going to completely destroy every national team other than England, Spain, Italy, France and Germany.
Its because it makes more money for Uefa and less so Fifa, it's the same reason why Platini wants more champions in the Champions league because if you're selling the T.V rights to Sweden then they will pay a hell of alot more if a Swedish team is involved in a minimum 6 games then if no Swedish team was in it, add up all the other countries with that logic and Uefa more than doubles its revenue, Gabriel Marcotti wrote an artical on it but i cannot find it, kind of makes a hypocrit out of Platini though because he was saying he was doing it to take football away from the money men, i.e Premiership foreign owners but what he really means is more money for him and Uefa and less for the clubs, i hate the sly french(no offence to Arsenal), and swiss for that matter, UEFA and FIFA are liars and its horrible.

[The Jitty Slitter]

well if marcotti says so....

[flyerhawk]

I guess Blatter and Platini haven't bothered to ask the players whether they like this idea.

"Hey Kolo, what do you think of a rule that would require you to play back in the Ivory Coast for Ivory Coast wages"

"F*!* that. Those F@$!ing twats better not f%!$ with my livelihood".

That would apply to just about every other African player playing in Europe.

And it will be just grand for the EPL as well. I'm certain their worldwide popularity will just explode when the top teams are forced to play guys like Zat Knight or Emile Hesky.

[TerpSoccerFan]

I can't imagine this will ever really come to any type of reality. Even outside of the Premiership, almost all of the big teams play with a majority of foreigners.

Spain is actually trending away from these proposals, considering that this year they gave players from a whole host of countries (most notably all of Africa) exempt status so that they are treated as if they are citizens of the European Union. This is arguably more inclusive than the Premier League model considering that players don't have to be regulars for their national team to qualify.

With La Liga teams now free to sign as many African players as they want, those teams are only going to get more and more foreign-filled. Of course, God only knows why African players would want to play there, considering the treatment they get.