Blatter wants EU law out of football

Sepp Blatter is ready to step and face down the European Union on the matter of putting quotas on the amount of foreign players who ply their trade with a given club.

The FIFA president wants clubs to be held to a total of five foreign players in a way to infuse home-grown talent back into clubs. That goes against EU law.

"Workers in Europe can circulate freely but footballers are not workers," Blatter said. "You cannot consider a footballer like any normal worker because you need 11 to play a match, and they are more artists than workers."

Blatter's words echo the thoughts of the English FA, which has been alarmed at the growing foreign influence on the field, as the numbers of English players decrease at a rapid rate.

Blatter and the EU seem likely to tangle anyway. The EU recently unveiled plans to regulate football, and feel the sport has too much immunity as it is.

"Football has never had the courage to go against this practice," Blatter said. "When you have 11 foreigners in a team, this is not good for the development of football, for the education of young players, and there is a financial aspect, too."

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