Blatter at it again!

[Gingawaria]

Blatter has Premier League doubts

Fifa president Sepp Blatter is worried that the Premier League's worldwide appeal is damaging the global game.

"I have my concerns because the Premier League is the strongest in the world, definitely," he told BBC Radio 5 Live.

"It is taking over in such a manner that the other leagues have difficulties to match it."

Blatter also believes that the England's top flight has an unhealthy imbalance of power, with only a handful of clubs contesting the title.

"In a competition where two-thirds or three-quarters of the participants in the league play not to be first, but not to be relegated, there is something wrong," he added.

Since the formation of the Premier League in 1992 there have only been four different winners, compared to six different champions over the previous 16 seasons.

Blatter is also concerned about the influx of foreign players and owners into England's top clubs that has accompanied the Premier League's runaway commercial success.

He said he would attempt to convince Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore to impose a minimum requirement for home-grown talent on the pitch and warned that domestic owners might provide better stewardship through the economic downturn.

"I want to try to, if not persuade him (Richard Scudamore), then at least influence him in his thoughts that to have a minimum of local players will enhance the quality of his league," he said.

"Foreign ownership is definitely a risk, it is not the basis of football, but here we can do nothing.

"At the moment in the economic crisis, maybe the big investors and the big companies, will have less money to go in than local or regional investors who will be there because they identify themselves with the club."

And Blatter warned that England's bid to host the 2018 World Cup, a key part of a so-called "golden decade" of sport for the UK, faced serious competition.

Nine other expressions of interest have been made, with Russia and joint bids from Spain and Portugal and the Netherlands and Belgium making up the competition from the rest of Europe.

"What is the advantage of England?" said Blatter.

"If you look at the the technical infrastructure for stadiums and the organisation of football matches on the level of 50,000 people and upwards then they are ready to organise it, but they are not the only one."

What a bitter, racist little **** this man is. He's clearly got an anti-England agenda as he's constantly bashing the Premier League and trying to introduce laws that would weaken the league.

[-V-]

He right to an extent though, the situations at Chelsea and Man City are not good for the game and were not exactly in the best of hands. Plus we the fans pay shocking amounts of money to see our game. Things are not good

[Vermilion]

The thing that gets me every time with Blatter, is that he uses this argument of only a handful of teams being able to challenge for the title, which never seems to be a problem for him in other leagues.

I really believe he has a personal problem with our league, and is more worried about our domination of the prizes than any other issue.

[BFG]

The thing that gets me every time with Blatter, is that he uses this argument of only a handful of teams being able to challenge for the title, which never seems to be a problem for him in other leagues.

I really believe he has a personal problem with our league, and is more worried about our domination of the prizes than any other issue.

Exactly. I doubt there's more than a handful of teams won La Liga, Bundesliga, Serie A etc in recent years but he constantly has to talk specifically about the Premier League.

He was in his position during the Galactico years at Madrid when they and Barca were paying similar amounts to Chelsea and the Man Utd/ City and I don't remember constant criticism of that. Perhaps the decent points he makes would be taken more seriously by a lot of us if he wasn't so blatently Anglophobic.

[Tee]

No doubt there is hypocrisy in what he says, but personally I am in favour of having a certain percentage of home grown players in each side.

I mean look at Real Madrid - when we played them we had more Spanish players than them.

Clearly Blatter and Platini are fearful of the power of the PL and see it as a threat, so they will continue with their agenda as long as they are in charge - one thing is for absolute certain IMO, we have no chance of getting the WC while these clowns are in power.

[The_weatherman]

No doubt there is hypocrisy in what he says, but personally I am in favour of having a certain percentage of home grown players in each side.

I mean look at Real Madrid - when we played them we had more Spanish players than them.

Clearly Blatter and Platini are fearful of the power of the PL and see it as a threat, so they will continue with their agenda as long as they are in charge - one thing is for absolute certain IMO, we have no chance of getting the WC while these clowns are in power.

I think it's getting very boring and predictable that the same top four from England always get through to the last rounds of the CL. It's also boring and predictable that the teams with the most money are most likely to be challenging.

[dww]

I think it's getting very boring and predictable that the same top four from England always get through to the last rounds of the CL. It's also boring and predictable that the teams with the most money are most likely to be challenging.

Only a few years ago people were complaining that the likes of us and Porto were winning the CL without being the biggest/best teams. I'm not really sure what can be done, it has always been the case that the most financially powerful leagues and team have dominated the competitions. The problem as I see it is that the competition is now driven by the need to generate TV revenue and hence must have as many top teams in as possible. There are pluses and minuses in the transition from the European Cup to the CL and at the minute I feel that financial disparities between the league is outweighing the benefits. However these things are often cyclical. Even in the last ten to fifteen years there have been periods of sustained Italian and Spanish dominance which wained in the end.

A US style wage cap etc is probably unworkable as is the idea of a franchise system.

I have my severe doubts about the quota system, assuming it is found to be legal, I still think that it's rapid introduction will only lead to a spike in the top 4 PL clubs buying the best English players even if they end up padding out matchday squads. If UEFA are serious about wanting the rules to come in and have the effects they want I think that they need to be introduced gradually or in a way deliberately designed to encourage youth development (I always thought the two additional PL bench places should have been reserves for players eligible for the CL B list or some other youthfulness/homegrowness criteria applied).

[The_weatherman]

Only a few years ago people were complaining that the likes of us and Porto were winning the CL without being the biggest/best teams. I'm not really sure what can be done, it has always been the case that the most financially powerful leagues and team have dominated the competitions. The problem as I see it is that the competition is now driven by the need to generate TV revenue and hence must have as many top teams in as possible. There are pluses and minuses in the transition from the European Cup to the CL and at the minute I feel that financial disparities between the league is outweighing the benefits. However these things are often cyclical. Even in the last ten to fifteen years there have been periods of sustained Italian and Spanish dominance which wained in the end.

A US style wage cap etc is probably unworkable as is the idea of a franchise system.

I have my severe doubts about the quota system, assuming it is found to be legal, I still think that it's rapid introduction will only lead to a spike in the top 4 PL clubs buying the best English players even if they end up padding out matchday squads. If UEFA are serious about wanting the rules to come in and have the effects they want I think that they need to be introduced gradually or in a way deliberately designed to encourage youth development (I always thought the two additional PL bench places should have been reserves for players eligible for the CL B list or some other youthfulness/homegrowness criteria applied).

I think a good way would be to introduce that first for maybe three years and then start the quota with maybe three national players to begin with. That should give teams some time to adjust.

[dww]

I think a good way would be to introduce that first for maybe three years and then start the quota with maybe three national players to begin with. That should give teams some time to adjust.

Seems very sensible.

[The_weatherman]

Seems very sensible.

So we'll probably see the opposite then

[Red_Polo]

Thread mistitled. 'Blatter a tit again', surely?