FIFA president Sepp Blatter - Reuters

REVERSE AFFIRMATIVE action for British football could be the result if FIFA president Sepp Blatter gets his way!

In response to concerns that clubs have been increasingly passing over young British players in favour of less expensive foreign players, Blatter proposes to put restrictions on the number of foreign players allowed to ply their trade in foreign lands (only five in the starting 11), with the thinking behind his proposal being the protection of national teams' interests.

At the inception of the premiership in '92-'93, just 11 players named in the starting line-ups around the league were foreign. Obviously that's a far cry from today's cosmopolitan competition where more than 260 foreign players are paid to play at the highest level - at the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany - the premiership was best represented with more than 80 players!

Exhibit: Arsenal

Arsenal were the first team in the premiership to name an entirely foreign 16-man squad and have understandably become the focus of the fight against the foreign siege. With 23 of 27 squad members holding a different kind of passport, Arsenal are far and away the most "foreign" of clubs in England.

And so it comes as no surprise that Sir Alex Ferguson came out in full support of Blatter this week. He maintains "clubs should have a proportion of home-based players" and feels Arsenal would "protest loudest to the rule".

Sadly, it would probably be the international audience of the BPL that would take it the hardest, having grown accustomed to seeing their favourite sons in the world's best league.

But Arsenal coach Arsene Wenger countered nicely saying, "If you put the level of the class down, it does not necessarily make the students better … to compete with the best players in the world is a chance to improve your game."

But imagine if Blatter's quotas were placed on foreign managers as well, that would mean Kenny Dalglish, Wenger, Jose Mourinho and Ferguson - the four managers to have won the premiership, may never have done so - as none are English!

It just goes to show that football has in many ways been ahead of the globalisation curve, from Asprilla to Bergkamp to Cantona, the league's product has improved as a result of foreign skill.

Contact Joel at jcrosskill@sportmax.tv

With Joel Crosskill