Fifa president Sepp Blatter has voiced his concerns over the English Premier League after speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live, believing that the worldwide appeal of the league is damaging the game.
It is not the first time that Blatter has expressed his concern for the Premier League game along with UEFA counterpart Michel Platini, who usually use the English game to highlight problems in European football.
“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.”
Another concern of Blatter’s is that the Premier League has a healthy imbalance of only a few clubs competing for the title each year, despite the Serie A and La Liga have a similar amount of winners in the past 20 years and a similar dominance of big clubs, whilst the French Ligue 1 has had Lyon as its champions for the past 7 years and Bayern Munich have won 8 of the past 12 Bundesliga’s.ÂÂ
Blatter claimed:“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,”ÂÂ
Blatter is also worried about the amount of foreign players and owners that now occupy the Premier League and hopes to persuade Premier League chief Richard Scudamore to impose a minimum requirement on home-grown players whilst ensuring more domestic owners come into the game.
“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.
Source: BBC Radio 5 Live
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