Premier League’s Richard Scudamore urges England to emulate Costa Rica

Scudamore is fed-up with the influx of foreign stars into the Premier League being made the scapegoat for an England side that has reached the World Cup semi-finals just once since 1996.

Premier League Richard Scudamore says extreme price for Raheem Sterling is not an indicator of increasing value of British players.

Memphis Depay, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Matteo Darmian, Roberto Firmino, Yohan Cabaye, Georginio Wijnaldum and Jordy Clasie are just some of the new arrivals and the market is open for almost another six weeks.

‘We get hung up about how they can’t possibly be good enough unless they’re playing for Chelsea or Man United, ‘ he said. “Of course they can be good enough”. How are they going to get into the first teams of Chelsea and Man City? Widen your horizons.

Foreign players dominate at a number of top clubs but Scudamore sees no reason why England should not be able to produce a competitive team from the bottom half of the Premier League or top of the Championship.

“I’d love to see a decent sprinkling of English talent in our very top clubs”.

‘But that’s an aspiration. Tom Fox, the Aston Villa chief executive, said that he had not found another club executive who backed them while Arsene Wenger, the Arsenal manager, said that English football should worry about how to “produce the best” rather than “protect the mediocre”.

‘That’s what the fans of those clubs want.

“I’ve never ever said we’ve got the best league in the world”.

The definition of a home-grown player would also change so that they must have been registered with their club for at least three years before the age of 18, rather than 21. Would they win it? I don’t know.’.

Greg Dyke’s proposals would see top-flight clubs forced to include more home-grown players in squads.

‘He’s pulling together a consultation paper.

He added: “I can only reflect the views of our clubs and they don’t believe that tinkering with the quotas is the solution to whatever the issue might be. I’d be delighted if another country got there first, as it might make it more likely that we would do it. It is shifting, but it’s not shifted far enough”. That’s probably where this will go. It was the genesis of the EPPP (Elite Player Performance Plan).

“Go back to England v Croatia in 2007 [when England lost at Wembley to miss out on qualifciation for the 2008 European Championship]”.

Dyke has proposed the minimum number of home-grown players in top-flight squads be increased from eight to 12 over four years from 2016-17 in order to boost the quality of the England team.

“We believe in the investment and progress we are making in youth development”.