Sepp Blatter, the Fifa president, hopes to introduce his "six-plus-five" quota on the number of foreign players in the Premier League by the 2012-13 season.

Blatter, in Sydney for Fifa's annual congress, appears determined to implement the first part of his plan by 2010, with clubs being forced to field four homegrown players. He hopes to expand that to six players by the start of the 2012-13 season, and he claims to have the support of key European delegates.

While the Fifa president acknowledges the success of the Premier League, he believes the monopoly of the big four is not conducive to the development of the game in England and the success of the national team.

The 71-year-old is in the second year of his third term as president and, although he has not ruled out a fourth bid for office, he believes his legacy hinges on installing a quota system, in which six places in the starting line-ups for domestic league matches are reserved for players eligible to play for the national team.

In recent weeks Michael Platini, the Uefa president, has raised concerns that plans for a quota system may not be legally sound but Blatter insists Fifa will proceed "within the limits of the law".

"It's to make sure that there is better balance in the competitions and not only three or four teams in a league of 18 or 20 are fighting to be the champion and all the others are just there to not be relegated," Blatter said.

"As Kevin Keegan recently said: 'I can only start my season to fight to be fifth or sixth or seventh. It is impossible for me to go into the final four.' At the end of the Champions League in Europe you have in the quarter-finals four teams of the same association; in the semi-finals three of these teams. Then in the final you are surprised that you have two teams of the same association? We want to bring some remedies and this is the six-plus-five rule's objective."

Blatter emerged from a two-day meeting of Fifa's executive committee convinced the proposal would be accepted when the congress votes on it later this week.

"The executive committee unanimously supported the proposed resolution concerning the six-plus-five rule," he said. "We've had confirmation by all the confederations, including Europe, that everybody favours the objectives of the six-plus-five. I'm convinced, now the confederations are in favour of such a proposed solution, it is a possibility.

"We would start, step by step, with four plus seven in 2010 and then 2011 five [plus six], then 2012 six [plus five]. We've just seen Manchester United's starting XI in Moscow with six players eligible for the English team on the pitch," he said. "And they won. Not bad."