FIFA president Sepp Blatter’s plans to limit the number of foreign players in a team, otherwise known as the “6+5″ rule, received overwhelming backing at FIFA’s congress in Sydney on Friday.

His plans, which would see clubs allowed to field a maximum of five foreign players, are contradictory to European Union laws and Brussels has already warned of legal action against any country which allows this rule to be implemented. Many national associations, leagues and clubs also say the plan is unfair and unworkable.

Blatter is forging ahead with the idea “for the good of the game” and says he has the backing of the fans.
    
But does he? Would such a rule make it fairer for smaller clubs? Or would it lead to, say, Manchester United and Chelsea buying all the best English players, or Real Madrid cherry-picking Spanish players for reasons of nationality rather than ability?

UEFA says its ”home-grown player” rule — which has the backing of Brussels — is a “more balanced” approach.

Under this rule, clubs would have to have in their squads at least eight locally trained players, defined as players who have spent three years with that club or a club in the same association between the age of 15 and 21, without any nationality conditions. 

UEFA says this will make clubs invest more in local talent and give any youngsters coming from Africa or Latin America better training and education.

Mike Collett writes in his analysis at our soccer website that Blatter’s plan is laudable but unworkable, while there’s another thoughtful piece over at Soccerlens. 

Elsewhere, Chris at Gooner Talk calls the idea ludicrous, Soccer Guru carries the headline “Sepp Blatter destroys Premiership” and there are far less polite comments around the Web.

What do you think? Is this merely a romantic idea that hasn’t a snowball’s chance in a world of soccer dominated by money? If it does go through, would it really benefit the game? Give us your thoughts in the comments.

PHOTO: FIFA President Sepp Blatter listens to a delegate on day two of the 58th FIFA congress in Sydney May 30, 2008. REUTERS/Will Burgess

Henk Ten Cate’s sacking by Chelsea won’t make the headlines that greeted the departures of Jose Mourinho and Avram Grant, but it could be significant in Spain as well as in England.

Ten Cate, the 53-year-old Dutchman, was little known in Barcelona when he was appointed as Frank Rijkaard’s assistant in 2003. He soon won a reputation as a hard taskmaster in training and a disciplinarian when it came to man management. He was also praised as a clever tactician but he was content to keep a low profile in the media.

When he left to take over at Ajax in 2006, after the Champions League final win over Arsenal, a few columnists noted how Barcelona would miss him, but it’s fair to say his exit was hardly mourned by the public.

They certainly miss him now.

There’s an article on the El Mundo Deportivo website this mourning noting his departure from Chelsea and just about every comment says the same thing — Please, please, please can he come back to Barcelona.

It’s not hard to see why the fans are aching for his return. In the two years since he’s been gone Barcelona have become a shambles. Senior players like Samuel Eto’o came out to criticise the coach and Ronaldinho appeared to lose all motivation as the club’s internal discipline went to pot. It’s hard to see Ten Cate tolerating all that.  

The question now is whether Barcelona’s new coach Pep Guardiola will want him at his side, and if so, whether Barcelona will be able to persuade him back. If they can, Chelsea’s decision to sack him might turn out be the best news Barca have heard in two years.

As for Chelsea, I wonder if this makes it more or less likely that Rijkaard will be their new coach. What do you reckon?

PHOTO: Ten Cate holds up the European Cup during Barcelona’s Champions League celebrations, May 18, 2006. REUTERS/Gustau Nacarino

Sven-Goran Eriksson has not even been sacked by Manchester City, yet he already finds himself under fire in Mexico where he is widely expected to be named as the replacement for Hugo Sanchez.

Despite leading Manchester City to a respectable ninth place in the Premiership, it’s been widely reported that Eriksson is facing the chop and at the Mexican Federation they are optimistic about naming him as their new coach as early as Monday.

Striker Jared Borgetti, who has scored a record 43 goals for Mexico, said in a surprisingly outspoken interview this week that the Mexican FA were trying to grab worldwide attention for themselves rather than concentrating on strictly football matters.

Borgetti said that if Mexico want to try their luck with a European coach, then they should appoint him when he has time to experiment and get to understand the psyche of their players.

But with the tortuous CONCACAF World Cup qualifiers just around the corner, Borgetti says Mexico needs a local coach who is familiar with the hostile atmosphere in Central America and the bumpy pitches and physical encounters of the Caribbean.

“I’m not talking about the standard, but in the way you take on the other teams. It’s not just about football, you have to face other things. When you go to play in Central America and the Caribbean, the conditions are very different to Europe,” he said.

The last European coach to try his luck with a Latin American national side was Italy’s Cesare Maldini, who was appointed to lead Paraguay at the 2002 World Cup.

It was not a happy experience.

During his six months in charge, Maldini was criticised for spending more time in Italy than in Paraguay and local coaches called for him to be kicked out the country because they said he was working on a tourist visa.

After the World Cup, goalkeeper Jose Luis Chilavert said the players had spoken to each other in Guarani so that Maldini could not understand them and had ignored his instructions for the second half of the group match against Slovenia, which Paraguay won 3-1 to reach the last sixteen.

PHOTO: Eriksson waves to the crowd after Manchester City’s friendly against South China Athletics Association Team at Hong Kong stadium, May 22, 2008. REUTERS/Victor Fraile

Up until a few weeks ago you’d have been fined in Austria for flying a flag on your car. Only ambassadors and government officials were allowed to that. But bureaucracy is slipping and passions are stirring, albeit slowly, as Euro 2008 approaches.

In the last few days Austrian flags have been fluttering from cars in the capital after the government lifted the ban for the duration of the tournament to help drum up some atmosphere. Some of Austria’s cheap supermarket chains will sell tournament merchandise half-price this weekend, and at last the Austrians, whose first sporting love will always be skiing, are starting to show an interest.

Culture reigns supreme in Vienna, famed for its balls, its classical music and art galleries. When I arrived in Vienna in mid-May the city’s residents still pulled faces when asked if they were looking forward to the tournament. Drunk fans might smash windows or make a noise at night.

“Hosted by losers” T-shirts and underwear became must-have items, while the son of a former Austria player even launched a website urging the team to withdraw to spare the country the sort of international humiliation usually only experienced by Britain at the Eurovision song contest.

But now it seems they may want to impress after all. The fan zone will be in the heart of the city, shutting off one of Vienna’s main arteries — a sweeping avenue flanked by imposing imperial architecture. Curiosity if nothing else will have the locals heading off to the fan zone, perhaps to check there is no trespassing on the monuments.

The Austrian team is ranked 101st in the world and not even the most patriotic fans fancy their chances of winning the tournament. But the Austrians are desperate to outperform the Swiss, on and off the pitch, and remember, no one outside Germany thought they’d be able to throw a party at the World Cup, and look how much fun that was.

PHOTO: An Austrian worker holds an official UEFA EURO 2008 logo in the fan zone in front of the historic Hofburg palace at Heldenplatz square in Vienna, May 27, 2008. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger

Join vlogmeister Owen Wyatt as he goes to the London College of Communication to seek opinions on Wayne Rooney’s role for England.

The 2-0 win over the United States was probably England’s best performance under Fabio Capello, and Steven Gerrard certainly had a good game, but there seems to be a common feeling that the Italian is not getting the best out of Rooney.

Should Capello be building his team around Rooney? Is it a case of Rooney trying to do too much for the team when he should be being more selfish? Or do you expect it all to come right again when he recovers from the effects of a long season?

Last week Alex Ferguson slammed Real Madrid for using Spanish sports daily Marca as a mouthpiece to further their designs on Cristiano Ronaldo. United have backed their manager’s complaints by threatening to report the Primera Liga side to FIFA for their behaviour.

Real, however, deny any wrongdoing, saying all they have done is express their admiration for one of the hottest properties in world football.

“We aren’t going to start a conflict,” said Real president Ramon Calderon. “If a club does not want to sell a player why would we insist they sell him? We know they are not a selling club. It is a problem between the player and his team.”

Real have a point. Aren’t United pointing the finger in the wrong direction?

After all the one person who could end all the speculation is the player himself. All Ronaldo needs to do is say he is committed to United and the whole saga would be over in a matter of minutes.

But the winger, who is no doubt receiving some expert advice from his representatives, seems prepared to see which club can come up with the best offer before making any definitive decision on his future.

If United tried taking the case to FIFA, they would be hard pressed to prove Real have actually done anything wrong. However much it may appear to be, Marca is not the club’s official channel of communication.

Marca, of course, is by far the biggest selling newspaper in Spain with content primarily devoted to football and more accurately anything connected with Real Madrid. Arch-rival AS is the same. The two papers compete for the ear of the players and the top brass on the board, constantly vying with each other to provide the inside line on developments at the club.

But they both have around 50 pages to fill each day. During the season they report every quote from the daily club press conferences, give blow-by blow reports of training sessions, include cut-away diagrams of who sat where on the team plane, and even provide exhaustive lists of the kit the team might take on away trips in the Champions League.

But they are faced with a serious problem at the end of the football season. How on earth do they fill the paper when Real Madrid aren’t playing? The national team does not generate the same level of interest so they need something else to keep the readers’ attention and that is where the summer-long transfer saga comes in.

Former president Florentino Perez was a godsend to the Spanish press. His lengthy pursuit, and successful capture, of big name players such as Figo, Zidane and Beckham provided endless copy during the close season with every twist and turn documented in the papers and on television.

Since Perez’s departure the press have had to pounce on any scrap of information in the hope of reviving interest. For the last two seasons they have spent the summer talking up the chances of Cesc Fabregas and Kaka moving to the Bernabeu but in the end there was almost no basis to the stories.

But this season is different. Calderon’s undoubted desire to sign Ronaldo, off the record briefings from club directors outlining the club’s plan of action, the player’s refusal to rule out a move to Spain, and United’s angry response have provided them with the perfect ingredients for a summer-long saga.

No matter how much United complain this one will run and run until Real get their man or until Ronaldo comes clean about his future.

Simon Baskett, Madrid

PHOTO: Manchester United forward Cristiano Ronaldo celebrates after scoring against Chelsea during the Champions League final, May 21 REUTERS/Darren Staples

Fabio Capello has named John Terry as captain for England’s friendly against the United States on Wednesday, which may be some slim consolation for that penalty miss in the Champions League final.

Rio Ferdinand and Steven Gerrard have previously held the captaincy under Capello. who will presumably make a decision on who gets the job on a long-term basis before England start their qualifying campaign for the World Cup in South Africa in 2010.

Owen Wyatt was at Capello’s news conference this morning and he’d like your views on who the Italian should go for. Personally, I’m beginning to think Owen Hargreaves might be the man for the job — he can take a mean penalty, at least — but I’m sure you’ll have plenty of other ideas. Let us know in the comments, or with a video blog of your own.

After sacking Avram Grant following the club’s first Champions League final, nothing at Chelsea should surprise us.

But Jose Mourinho possibly going back as coach? Even in the wacky world of Stamford Bridge, it is surely just paper talk and fantasy.

Mourinho is a shrewd man and he will know as well as anyone that coaches very rarely succeed in a second stint at a club. (See our blog from when Kevin Keegan was reappointed at Newcastle.)

The dynamics of Chelsea are also very different from when he took over in 2004.

Back then, Claudio Ranieri had already laid the foundations of a Premier League-winning side. Arjen Robben and Petr Cech were signed for the next season before Mourinho arrived. The Portuguese also had bags of cash to bring in Drogba, etc etc.

This time it would be different. Chelsea could lose Drogba and a number of other players, meaning a large rebuilding job would have to be undertaken, just when Roman Abramovich’s appetite for investment appears to have waned.

Remember as well that it was only in September that Mourinho’s relationship with the Chelsea hierarchy completely collapsed. Media reports say Abramovich has since had some “cosy chats” with his former coach and even bought him a car, but working together again would bring the same tensions, the same clashes of ego.

Assuming the second coming for Mourinho is not about to take place, where does that leave us?

Frank Rijkaard, Roberto Mancini, Sven-Goran Eriksson and Russia coach Guus Hiddink have all been mentioned as possible candidates but the best answer to Chelsea’s problems might well be Marcello Lippi, who has been out of work since Italy’s World Cup triumph two years ago.

Lippi, incidentally one of the few coaches to enjoy success in a second spell when he returned to Juventus, has been waiting for a perfect opening.

He said he would have talked to Barca if they hadn’t appointed Pep Guardiola. He has also said he wouldn’t fancy learning English. Yet England coach Fabio Capello’s first English interview at the weekend was impressive.

Lippi’s language barrier would be easier to overcome than all of Mourinho’s baggage.

Mark Meadows, Milan

 PHOTO: Jose Mourinho while manager of Chelsea at last year’s FA Cup final, Sep 20, 2007 REUTERS/Eddie Keogh

Chelsea have acted quickly and some might say ruthlessly to their Champions League final defeat by Manchester United, opting on Saturday to sack Avram Grant.

There is no explanation on the Chelsea Web site, but then again none is really needed, I suppose. When you spend so much money on putting together the best team you possibly can, you don’t really want to settle for second place, do you?

I personally feel a bit sorry for Grant. I don’t know him at all, but he came across as a very likeable chap in his dealings with the press at the Champions League final. I particularly liked his parting shot to the media on the eve of the final: “I know you all care about me because you’re always asking if I’m going to stay or go,” he said.

But what do you think? Was this is an inevitable reaction to the defeat (as well as the player unrest that’s bubbling away), or did Grant deserve a chance to build his own team rather than doing the best he could with what Mourinho had left him?

And who on earth are Chelsea going to sign as his replacement? There’s a rumour in Italy that Mancini might be about to announce that he’s standing down. Maybe it’ll be Mourinho to Inter and Mancini to Chelsea…?

PHOTO: Avram Grant leaves the pitch after Chelsea’s Champions League final defeat by Manchester United,  May 22, 2008. REUTERS/Eddie Keogh

The futures of coach Avram Grant and several Chelsea players are uncertain following their Champions League final defeat by Manchester United. But how many will leave?

Speculation that Grant will be axed has intensified after chief executive Peter Kenyon said finishing second in the Premier League, Champions League and League Cup was not good enough.

“It’s been an interesting season, but you don’t like finishing second and as runners-up. Given the standards we’ve set, that’s not something we’ve settled for,” he said.

“We’re looking at players who have the potential to be star names. We’ve brought in one player, Jose Bosingwa from Porto, who strengthens a position which has been an issue for us. We’ll take our time to look at what else is needed, but I think that’s two players rather than 20.”

Didier Drogba’s sending off in Moscow on Wednesday could well be his last appearance in blue. The striker has never hidden the fact that a move to AC Milan appeals and the Serie A side are keen to sign him, even if they are only in the UEFA Cup next season.

Milan owner Silvio Berlusconi would also love to have former striker Andriy Shevchenko back at the San Siro. Coach Carlo Ancelotti is not so sure and media reports say Milan will only take the Ukrainian on a free.

Even Chelsea talisman Frank Lampard is not definitely staying. After a difficult period following the death of his mother, the midfielder has said he will talk with Chelsea after England’s forthcoming friendlies.

Inter Milan lie in wait if Lampard decides to move on. Would Jose Mourinho’s possible arrival at the Italian champions increase the possibility of Lampard moving? 

Claude Makelele, Paulo Ferreira, Steve Sidwell, Ricardo Carvalho, Tal Ben Haim, Nicolas Anelka, Carlo Cudicini, Wayne Bridge and Claudio Pizarro are among the other Chelsea players to be linked with a move.

Is Roman Abramovich’s empire crumbling or will a bigger, better Chelsea emerge?

Mark Meadows, Milan

PHOTO: John Terry hits the post with a penalty which would have won the Champions League for Chelsea. May 22 REUTERS/Eddie Keogh