Eriksson spoke out as City confirmed the identities of three of the five clubs they have negotiated long-term partnerships with in a bid to net the world's top young talent.
City have set up partnerships with Chinese Super League club Shanghai Shenhua, South African Premier League side Thanda Royal Zulu and Russian Premier League outfit FC Moscow.
Those formal link-ups will enable the Blues to tap into top foreign talent, as well as reap commercial benefits from spreading the City brand around the world.
And it comes after the Blues announced plans earlier this week to set up Academies in Thailand and China, with the prospect of more to follow in North and South America.
But FIFA president Blatter wants clubs to be limited to five foreign players in their starting XI in order to allow homegrown talent to flourish.
United boss Sir Alex Ferguson supports Blatter's stance, arguing that it would benefit the English game.
Eriksson, though, believes that such restrictions would be unworkable.
And the European Commission looks set to agree with the City boss when its new Reform Treaty is signed next month.
Quota
The EC is considering imposing a quota on clubs to ensure they employ a minimum number of homegrown players, but their nationality will be irrelevant as long as they are permitted to work within the European Union.
And the Commission has indicated that it will reject Blatter's suggestion, as it will not be altering freedom of movement legislation or making any exceptions for sports federations.
Eriksson has made full use of the international transfer market since taking over at City in July.
The Blues manager's eight summer signings consisted of two Brazilians, two Bulgarians, a Spaniard, a Croatian, an Italian and a Swiss.
And Eriksson's belief is that the 1995 Bosman ruling, which allowed professional footballers in the European Union to move to another club at the end of their contract, opened a door that cannot now be closed.
Open
He said: "I think since the Bosman case came about, there has always been a discussion about this.
"My opinion is this. If you want to have an open Europe in life, in business life, with people working in different countries, you can't take football away from that. So I think you have to live with it.
"And if you try to make rules that say the Premier League can only have two, three or four foreigners, I'm sure that if someone went to the European Court to challenge that, they would win the case.
"You can't take away lawyers or footballers from the rest of Europe."
The City manager is this week on a trip to China and Thailand to promote the club in the Far East.
And the identities of the other two clubs the Blues have set up partnerships with will be revealed later today when Eriksson and China international Sun Jihai continue their Far East tour in Bangkok.
CITY have agreed to take three Chinese stars on trial from new partner club Shanghai Shenhua. They are striker Gao Lin, 21, goalkeeper Wang Da Lei, 19, and 22-year-old midfielder Mao Jianqing.
Eriksson said: "Shenhua's coach has told me good things about them and I look forward to seeing them at Carrington."
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Its alright the likes of Fergie championing this rule, when United hoover up all the best English talent paying prices the rest of the Premiership can't. This is the only way the rest can compete.
Just seen on Sky that Pearce
thinks that the number of foreign players at each club should be limited. Pity he didn't think about that before he wasted 6M on Samaras and a fortune on Isaakson and the other superstar Dabo
Nor read SGE comments and compare it to AF's.
and then you could see why united were dying to replace AF with SGE. the difference in style, choice of words, intelligence and genuin passion for football and FAIR PLAY is obvious.
we are so lucky to have him.
could we please start a song for him, it goes on the sounds of the beateles ((yellow submarine))
WE ALL LOVE YOU SVEN GORAN ERIKSON, SVEN GORAN ERIKSON, SVEN GORAN ERIKSON.
I doubt we would really struggle that much anyway... Onouha, Richards, Dunne, Hart, Ball, Ireland, Johnson, Vassell all British. We have got a British backbone and that isnt counting any of the young lads as well.
I also think it is unfair that players like Hamman who have made a full career in England suddenly get told that they arent needed any more?
Another point is the foreign players raise the quality of our game which means the likes of Johnson have to raise their games to compete against the likes of Torres, Fabregas, Drogba, Agger etc which surely is good for the England team? If a player is good enough, he will play!
Also, with the lack of English options available would it widen the gap even further between the big clubs and the rest as surely they will just buy all the best English and leave other clubs struggling to fill their team with quality players?
Even though I have said the above I still see pros and cons in each side of the argument so for the time being, I sit on the fence.
Dont be a bum, ignore the Scum.
Well said Sven! We live in a European society with a free marekt like it or not. If English players aren't good enough to play in the best league in the world then so be it! They can always look to play in other leagues, why try and limit our league which will ultimately make it less impressive! We should be happy we can see some of the best players in the world playing in our country! I'd much rather have a foreign player at city who works hard and has his head screwed on, then some over-payed thug like barton or the likes of bowyer and smith!
I agree with Sven,the Bosman ruling allowed the floodgates to open the foreigners are here to stay.The FA placed travelling time restrictions on how far a young boy will be allowed to travel to receive professional coaching.Which means for clubs in the Manchester area there are too many clubs competing for to little talent.The rich clubs can of course get round this by bringing the boy and his family to live in the allowed catchment area.The simple truth is that fewer kids are actually playing the game now even in the less priviliged areas prefering instead to play with their computor games. I predict that teams in the future will consist of nearly all foreign players.
PoD has it spot on - the only reason Taggart wants this is that he knows in a restricted market ManUre could just out spend everyone else .... as usual !
SGE again the voice of the modern game in Manchester. Like it or not, the rule on the restriction of foreign players will not happen any time soon.
If, as this report suggests, SAF endorses the limitation rule, then Fergie needs to recognise the impact that it would have on his own team.
14 out of the 16 players in the Utd game with Blackburn were not English by birth !!.
(I am not counting Hargreaves as his upbringing in Canada and Germany did nothing for the English game).
And in any case, since when did Fergie care about the English state of football ?.
The old dinousaur versus the Professor ? no contest.
Unless EU law changes, it'll never happen!
Jack Thorley's hit on an important point there. The result of placing this limit on clubs would be to further ostracise smaller clubs and see the big clubs buying in talent at such a young age as they can gain the correct nationality before they'll be required to play. I think it's 5 years in this country so for Fabregas to have made his Arsenal debut at 16, he would have to have been spotted, scouted, bought and relocated along with his family, all by the age of 11.
Never going to work is it.
Too many people are saying that (like Coppell) the problem is foreign players. Rubbish. The problem is British coaching. You can see it every time England play an international. In virtually every team we play against the first touch of the opposing players is better. The modern game is based on retaining possession - i.e. Arse. I watched at Pompey and then I have watched it on a recording since. You can see City retaining the ball for long periods. This allows them to dictate the pace of play and stymied Pompey. Then you watch League one, Championship and lower Premeier games and they can't keep the ball for more than one or two exchanges. FA coaches should concentrate on skill and ball work.
We should only be able to sign players from Mid-Cheshire Boys....and even then only if they are related to Alan Oakes.....
Sepp does not want to improve our chances of success for our national team full stop,he wants to weaken the premiership simple jealous of the fact it's the best in the world, besides i would rather have one english player playing with ten quality players than have ten english of varying quality playing with one foreign player. plus how many leagues do we have the goverment and the footballing bodies should help the championship and ligue one clubs form thier own academys.
Why is it that the English players who dont make it in the Premier League seem happy to drop down a division rather than try there luck in the Bundesliga, Ligue 1, La Liga or Serie A.
Foreigners love coming to England to play football so why dont the English want to play abroad? and try to fill there leagues with English... Not good enough? Cost to much? Or just lazy with no ambition and just happy to get a wage from lower league level. ie; british mentality.
bugsy blue
well said!
i especially like your last line
mc4life
Bugsy Blue - Dunne and Ireland are Irish, as foreign as Garrido, Samaras, Isaaksson, Bojinov, Petrov and Bianchi. Corluka, Elano, Fernandes, Sun and Geovanni are even more foreign cos they don't come from EU countries.
EU law won't allow any restrictions on the number of EU players on the pitch at any time (lucky for Arse, L'pool and Chelski)but I think there are already rsetrictions on the number of non-EU players that can play at one time. 4 maximum I think.
What Blatter and Platini are try to push through will never be implemented,it's against European law to restrict people from working
wherever there is work within the EU.It's like Gordon Brown saying "British jobs for British workers" a nice sentiment which he knows would never be allowed
under EU law.
Whether or not the number of foreigners playing here has
adversely affected our chances at international tournaments is another matter. I would point those who think it does back to the
seventies when we didn't even qualify for two WC's.How many foreigners were playing here then? I can only think of the two-the
guys at Ipswich(whose names escape me),followed by the two Spurs 'tinians.I think that we have to face up to the fact that we just aint good enough,and after seeing what Sven has achieved thus far with us at club level,I'm more convinced of this than ever.God these international breaks are a pain in the ass.
I am not convinced England's failure to succeed at big championships is about the number of foreigners in our league, and I am not convinced that it is about lack of quality. I think it is more about lack of leadership. The Manager and the Head of the FA just simply aren't good enough. If you can create a good club atmosphere at international level, with really good team morale, than you can win the World Cup, as Italy proved, last year. There is nothing between our team and theirs in quality. In fact at the moment there has nothing between them and Scotland! Emglish players are playing in the best league at the highest level. Those good enough to play in the Premier League are going to be good enough to play international football. The standard is very similar. The problem is with the management. You need someone at the top who can attract the best managers and who can make the right noises at the right time, and most importantly you need someone who can make the total greater than the sum of the parts, someone who can fashion a squad of players into a really tight nit, committed, competitive team. Hiddink? Maybe Klinnsman?
This looks like it could be another Club v Country debate. Everytime England look like failing to qualify for a major competition everybody, especially the media, goes looking for an excuse. The current favourite appears to be that there are not enough English players plying their trade in the EPL therefore the national game suffers. Fortunately, Blatter agrees and can no be a mouthpiece for the excuse seeking media.
So what! I think it was David Platt a couple of months ago, who said that England were currently good enough to be a Quarter Final team but no further in any competition. If I take my rose-tinted Ray Bans off then I'm inclined to agree with Platt.
It's a sad fact of life that English players ask for stupid wagers and attract ridiculous transfer fees - or to be precise the player's agent asks for them. MCFC is in the football business and like any business needs to be able to attract capital, raise revenue, control costs and ideally turn a profit. It greatly helps the business if there is a decent series of cup runs at home and abroad, a high positioning in the League and even better some silverware. Nevertheless, as Sven has undoubtably proved, you can buy quality footballers without breaking the bank - but you've got to go abroad and IMO he's right to do it. If Blatter's plans came to fruition then the average cost of a decent English player would double. Imagine Crouch with a £20 million price tag - unthinkable.
So, in the club v country debate I'd rather have City win the Champions League once than England the World Cup twice. And if the media want to blame the demise of English footbal on anybody then look no further than the Football Agent.
so the sourfaced whisky slurping jock from over the road thinks its good for the english game does he-never heard such double faced hypocritical tripe in all my life-i think the whisky after all this time has pickled his brain bigtime-his club wouldnt have won a sausage without his foreign buys and he was one of the biggest moaners in the 90's that he couldnt play his strongest side in europe-now he wants it reversed-is it any wonder his cocky big headed club is hated up and down the country-and they call it jealousy!
The Kippax Kid, Richard Dunne & Stevie Ireland are Irish (The Repbublic of, not Northern Ireland) and are therefore definately NOT Britsh. They would be caught up in any quota system in the same way as Elano etc.
Those calling for a quota are missing a very key point - here in the UK we play as separate nations at international level; therefore all Scots, Irish and Welsh players would have to count as foreigners in terms of quota calculations.
Look what happened when the quota was brought in for European Champions League matches - the Rags could not play a large number of British players (Giggs for example) because they were classified as foreigners.
Beware of the consequences of what you wish for....
If the Premier League is treating ‘inferior’ leagues and clubs around the world as a breeding ground from which it will continue to recruit talent, we might well ask why the Football League is not delivering the same. Could it be it is not acting as a fertile breeding ground? Are the players not of high enough calibre? Are they too expensive? And if the money from recently announced sponsorship and TV deals is only used to increase the salaries of players there, won’t this only mean clubs will continue to look overseas? We cannot bleat about foreigners if we don’t put our own house in order. Surely the answer lies in putting money into quality coaching schemes, to develop the talent we undoubtedly have. Our own club bears testimony.
SHAUN AT MY DESK,ARNOLD MURHEN AND FRANS THISSEN(PROB SPELT WRONG) WERE THE IPSWICH PLAYERS(ONE WENT ON TO PLAY FOR THE RAGS!! CTID.
Yea, I forgot about that Bluetony. School boy error! I never was a whizz a geography. Might have something to do with my geography teacher sneaking off into the supply room for a couple of vodkas.