Fifa president Sepp Blatter is refusing to drop his plan to limit the number of foreign players in a team, despite admitting it contravenes European Union law.
Blatter wants to introduce a ‘six-plus-five’ quota system to restrict a side’s number of foreign players to five.
“For now, it is against one of the principals of European Union law – free circulation of workers in Europe,” he said.
“Concerning the legal point of view, we have to investigate exactly what is illegal in this matter.”
The European Commission has already indicated that Blatter’s plan will be deemed illegal, but the Fifa president is determined to press ahead.
“We are now working on three different levels to get through the resolution, which was taken by the Fifa congress at the end of May in Sydney, and was taken by a very huge majority – 155 votes against five, and those five votes included no European association,” he told Sky News.
“Therefore the mandate was given to the Fifa president and Uefa president, Michel Platini, to investigate this matter and look at, always within the limits of the law, how it can be achieved.”
