Rivals envy Premier League

English Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore said he believes his league is the most powerful in the world, and believes other domestic European leagues are jealous.

"A real worry is that our European colleagues in other leagues are getting jealous," Scudamore told Reuters. "I am sure the legislators and the regulators in Europe would like to see us levelled down a little bit."

Part of that is Scudamore's take that FIFA president Sepp Blatter's six-plus-five quota would harm the league, which increasingly has lured strong international players to the fold. Blatter's proposal would limit clubs to five foreign starters.

Just as Blatter used the Champions League — in which three of the final four clubs were English — as a selling point for his plan, Scudamore sees it as envy on the rest of the continent's part.

"Why would we allow legislators in Europe to look at us and say 'oh they are far too successful, look at that Premier League, look at English football — it is better than ours. What can we do to bring it down'," Scudamore said. "That's no recipe for progress and I worry about that more than anything else.

"They look at our league, look at our players, look at our incomes, the fact we have three teams in the Champions League semi-finals, they look at the FA being the most successful FA anywhere in world football and they look at Wembley Stadium.

"There is an envy out there. You cannot deny it. It is there."

Source: euFootball.BIZ © Copyright 2006 - All rights reserved.