Sepp Blatter, the Fifa president, believes the European Union’s Lisbon Treaty will allow the game’s governing body to limit foreign players in domestic leagues.

The agreement was signed by the 27 EU countries yesterday, and Blatter, along with a number of other high-profile figures in football, has long argued against clubs who fill their squads with foreign stars at the expense of home-grown products.

Blatter hopes the treaty will see sporting associations become exempt from the employment laws that give workers freedom of movement across the continent, which would allow Fifa to advance plans to see teams field at least six home grown players.

“We are working for the identity of football,” he said. “They have discussed a new treaty in Europe and discussed the specificity of sport and its statutes and guarantees. We don’t want to fight any laws but we want football to exist as a family.

A major concern is protecting the national identity of clubs, and the Fifa president thinks England’s Euro 2008 failure has brought the issue to the forefront of European football.

“We have to maintain, if not the local idea of a club then at least the national identity of a club,” he added.

“This issue was brought up two or three years ago, but it has only started now. Why? Because something happened in the motherland of football, England. They have not qualified for Euro 2008 and some have said there are too many foreign players in the league.”

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