Richard Scudamore yesterday insisted that the Premier League’s plans for an international round of matches are not a “dead duck”, but the league’s chief executive conceded that he is swimming against a strong tide and said that the idea will fail unless it is given approval by Fifa and the FA.

That seems most unlikely as Sepp Blatter, the Fifa president, last week called it an “abuse” that would be rejected by the organisation’s executive committee. Yet Scudamore remains defiant despite Blatter’s comments and the mostly unfavourable reaction from supporters, clubs and potential host nations. He intends to fly to Switzerland next week to persuade Blatter to change his mind.

“This is a set of proposals which is a work in progress and, yes, it has had some hostile reaction,” Scudamore said. “It’s certainly not a dead duck - it has only just started and we have only had ten days of a year-long consultation process. Clearly we are not going to take this forward if it in any way does not meet with some form of acquiescence from Fifa. Certainly the FA and the Football League will also have to be comfortable with whatever move we take.”

Scudamore was addressing MPs at a meeting of the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee to discuss the European Commission’s strategy document on how sport should be run. Not surprisingly, given the controversy provoked by the proposal for each Premier League club to play a 39th game in a variety of international cities from January 2011, MPs were eager to grill him on that topic, with some describing the idea as “daft”, “barmy” and “bent”.

For the first time since the scheme was announced on February 7, Scudamore admitted that it could be abandoned. “If it’s deemed not to be worth it, we will think again about our global expansion,” he said.

The international round is unlikely to receive FA backing. The FA is wary of upsetting Fifa and jeopardising England’s bid to host the 2018 World Cup finals. Scudamore is expected to talk through the proposals today with Brian Barwick, the FA chief executive, before an FA board meeting tomorrow that could deal the plan a definite blow.

Lord Triesman, the FA’s independent chairman, attended the meeting yesterday and reiterated his scepticism. He said that there had not so far been “sustainable answers” to four key issues: fixture congestion, continued harmonious relationships with international governing bodies, the matter of whether the whole football family backs the idea and the potentially unfair consequences of an unbalanced fixture list.

Triesman also raised the issue of limiting the number of foreign players. Fabio Capello, the England manager, has remarked that only 38 per cent of the Barclays Premier League’s players are eligible for England selection.

“It’s absolutely the least that we should expect that when someone who is the head England coach goes to a match, they should be in a position where they can see enough players who might be eligible to play for England,” Triesman said. “Otherwise, I can’t conceive of how it is that we are going to step up and resume the position I believe that we should be in as being one of the leaders of world teams in football.”

Blatter proposes that clubs field a minimum of six native players, but such a quota would be illegal under European Union law. Triesman called for a detailed analysis of employment laws to see what might be possible.