Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore has admitted that he is concerned by the number of foreign players in the English top flight, and feels it may be a detriment to the national side in the long run.

Only 38% of the players who participated in Premier League fixtures over the weekend were qualified to represent England, which is much lower than the other major European leagues.

When quizzed whether he was concerned by the figure, Scudamore admitted to wanting more home-grown players.

"In a way they do which is why we have put such an emphasis on the Elite Player Performance Plan," he stated to Sky Sports.

"We are making huge strides under our director of youth Ged Roddy, with everybody at the Football Association and Football League on board with the development plan which is entirely designed to bring through more and better young players, coached in better environments by better coaches.

"That is not to decry anything that is going on at the moment, but we would like to see that balance reduced. We don't want it eliminated, we still want to attract the best foreign talent we can. They have graced our Premier League, but certainly we do want to see more home-grown talent.

"You can't get involved in numbers. I want that number increased and if it was back towards 50% that would be good, if it was higher I would only want it to be higher if the English talent was good enough.

"We're not going to set high targets on this, it depends on how the rest of the game develops. Say we're sat here in 10 years' time with 100% of players English home-grown because football economies in Russia, China and the rest of the world have developed where all of the world's best talent drains off to these places, it would be a false number," he concluded.

By Gareth McKnight

[ad_pod id='writer-1' align='right']