OK, so Blatter still wants the "6+5" rule and is calling the EPL too dominant since its had 3 teams in the CL semifinals each of the past two years. I won't touch the 39th international round proposed because everyone has blasted that to pieces.

Now the majority of this has become press fodder because of England failing to qualify for Euro 2008. Not the first time they've failed to qualify for a tournament. How about not qualifying for the World Cup in '94, when there were few non-English players in the Premier League. And why this has become a bigger deal to FIFA than the FA I have no idea. Blatter calling it a tragedy that they didn't make it. They lost out to Croatia and Russia, two very good sides. Its not like they lost to Andorra. Besides, now we don't have to listen to them complaining when they don't make it past the group or first knock-out stages.

Now the "6+5"rule. It makes sense, but not for implementation in every league in the world. I see it as the way to have certain national leagues and therefore national teams to dominate every cup. The other thing is that a lot of players don't make it to the national team until they are playing in a different league. Look at a lot of the French squad. A lot of them don't play in France. Now if the majority of them went back to play in France I could see some Ligue 1 sides being very good, while the majority would still suck because they can't afford the star French players. Therefore the league keeps with Lyon, and OM on or near the top, while I could see the national team start to go downhill because its players aren't going against the best talent on a weekly basis.

The only team I don't see this affecting in the EPL is Aston Villa. But every other team would have to bring up some of their reserves to fill the quota. How would that improve anyone? Lets have two teams with reserve caliber players and a few stars play against each other. Guess what happens, the stars dominate and the reserves don't really get better until years later. But long before that you'd have clubs dissolve because they couldn't afford to pay English players. I'm sorry there is NO WAY a team should pay 15 million pounds for a player like Crouch.

And so now the EPL is too dominant? I didn't hear this until after Chelsea and ManU where in the final. So does that mean that if Barca had beaten ManU it wouldn't be an issue? Yet Blatter said nothing when 3 Italian or 3 Spanish teams were in the semis, let alone when the two teams from the same league faced off in the final. The CL is about showcasing the best teams in the Europe. If three of those teams are from the same league then so be it. You can't argue with the fact that all four English teams made it out of the group stages and then knocked out the other top competitors, AC Milan and Barca to name a few.

Now to end the rant: Let the FA deal with English issues!

Keep your boots close and laced,

Dan