Blatter,today at the 58th FIFA Congress in Sydney, attended by 201 member countries, announced the plans which he would like implemented by 2010 for clubs to field a minimum of four home grown players and six by 2012.
Taking the team that played in the last league game at Charlton, the Sky Blues fielded five English players in Danny Fox, Scott Dann,Elliott Ward, Isaac Osbourne and Stephen Hughes and had five Englishmen on the bench.
Some Premier League clubs would certainly struggle with Chelsea fielding four Englishmen in the Champions League Final whilst Arsenal in their last match in the competition did not field a single English man.
Blatter has not said whether players from Scotland,Northern Ireland and Wales would be classed as home grown or if players who came through a club's Academy would be classed as home grown and is expected to face a European Law battle about freedom of employment within the EEC.
According to FIFA.com, he told the congress; "We do not want to go against the existing laws. Regarding Europe, we want to use the legal basis of the Treaty of Lisbon, which acknowledges the specificity of sport and its structures and organisations, and comes into force on 1 January 2009. We want to go for consultation, not confrontation".
The 6 + 5 motion was passed by 155 countries to 5 with The FA voting in favour.
Details of the motion can be found below:
Background of 6+5
- The foundations of football are harmony and balance between national team football and club football,
- The clubs' loss of national identity is endangering the former and has led to increasing inequality among the latter, thereby widening the financial and sporting gap between the two, reducing the competitiveness of club competitions and increasing the predictability of their results,
- Safeguarding (i) the education and training of young players, (ii) training clubs, and (iii) the values of effort and motivation in football, particularly for young players, is a fundamental element of protecting national teams and restoring sporting and financial balance to club football,
- The universal development of football over the last century would not continue if there were increasing inequalities between continents, countries and protagonists in football,
Definition of 6+5
- At the beginning of each match, each club must field at least 6 who are players eligible to play for the national team of the country of the club.
- However, there is:
- no restriction on the number of non-eligible players under contract with the club,
- nor on substitutes to avoid non-sportive constraints on the coaches (potentially 3+8 at the end of a match).
Calendar of 6+5
The objective is to have an incremental implementation starting at the beginning of the 2010-2011 season to give clubs time to adjust their teams over a period of several years:
- 4+7 for 2010-2011
- 5+6 for 2011-2012
- and 6+5 for 2012-2013