Graphic: Big impact of overseas stars

The Sports Minister has called for an inquiry into whether the huge number of foreign footballers at leading Barclays Premier League clubs is behind the poor performance of the national team, although quite how the Government intends to ensure a greater English presence remains unexplained.

In an interview with The Times, Gerry Sutcliffe said that England’s leading clubs had not got the balance right, with too few home-grown players competing at the highest level, but he was short on detailed ideas about how to tackle the problem. Perhaps he was simply being cautious having recently caused an outcry by describing John Terry’s salary as “obscene”.

While there has been some support within football for the quota system proposed by Sepp Blatter, the Fifa president - with Sir Alex Ferguson giving his backing – Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, is known to harbour strong reservations about whether it is legally sustainable in a free market.

Sutcliffe would commit only to the idea of an independent inquiry to consider ways of ensuring that English players are better represented. And he said football bodies must take the lead. “I understand the complexities of the issues around freedom of movement and competition issues, but it just doesn’t feel we have got the balance right at the moment and that we need to look at what is possible,” Sutcliffe said.

“And we may need to have some sort of independent look at what needs to happen. But, again, you have to do that with football and you don’t want to disturb the balances that are there in terms of the success of the sport.

“We have got the best league in the world and it’s great that we have got the talent that is there in terms of the Premier League. But obviously we need to see how that impacts on and affects the national team.

“And it is not just in the home countries, it is in Europe as well. We need to have a look at what is going on there, what the impact is on national teams. And so I have been talking to football about that.”

Football could do with someone to lead the debate but Sutcliffe does not appear to be that man. In getting the figures wrong, his views on Terry’s wages upset Chelsea. More significantly, he annoyed many in football by failing to offer any informed ideas about controlling salaries.

His lack of rigorous thought over the failings of the national team is even more disappointing because the English game needs someone to knock heads together. The FA and Premier League remain at odds over many issues, including the important topic of youth development.

In broad terms, the clubs insist on controlling their own academy system and believe the FA has proved itself incapable of producing the necessary calibre of coaches. Meanwhile, the FA insists that it should oversee youth development and Sir Trevor Brooking, its director of football development, has come close to standing down over his lack of influence.

The two bodies, and the Football League, commissioned a report by Richard Lewis, executive chairman of the Rugby Football League, which was published in July without anyone noticing.

Nine months were spent on A Review of Young Player Development in Professional Football. Its unremarkable findings continue to be knocked around by the various bodies and it remains to be seen whether Sutcliffe’s proposed inquiry will be any more radical.

Meanwhile, as much as £20 million has already been spent on the FA’s National Football Centre near Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire, which has been mothballed for the past five years.

Sutcliffe has already discussed the issue of quotas with fellow European sports ministers. Uefa, European football’s governing body, last year introduced a rule requiring clubs playing in European competitions to have a minimum number of home-grown players in their squads. The number began at four and will rise to eight.

Uefa has sought to sidestep EU rules by not mentioning the term “nationality”, but there could be a legal challenge and, as with the recent quota proposals from Blatter, the Premier League remains opposed to changes in the domestic league. As does the Government.

The minister also had a warning for another group of sportsmen and women, telling Britain’s Olympic athletes that he wanted them to increase their medal tally at the Beijing Games next summer to justify the Government’s investment in elite sport.

Britain won 30 medals at Athens in 2004, finishing tenth in the medals table. In the 2012 games in London, the Government’s target is for Britain to finish fourth overall and to come first in the Paralympics. He is looking to sports such as judo and boxing to bring home more medals, in addition to sports where Britain already does well, such as rowing, sailing and eventing.

“Given we are investing over £200 million of public money to win medals in Beijing, I want to see an improvement on Athens,” Sutcliffe said. “But I also [want to see] a greater number of people in finals, a greater awareness of ambition.”

Athletes training for Beijing are benefiting from £114 million from the Treasury and £102 million from the lottery. Preparations for 2012 have been allocated £600 million.

The minister said: “We are a nation of people that like to watch sport, as opposed to being people that would be actively involved in sport. One of my tasks is to make sure we break through that and one of the ways of doing that is through the role models of elite and professional sport.”

The Government’s intervention into the debate about foreign players has been criticised by Hugh Robertson, the Shadow Sports Minister. “First we had the discredited pledge of British jobs for British workers, now Brown is promising something else which he cannot deliver with British Players for British Clubs,” Robertson said. “Once again Labour is playing politics with sport. The Government should back off, stop trying to play this issue for party political purposes and let the FA get on with its job.” If only it was that simple.