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EVERTON FC: NUMBERS ADD UP

/noticias.info/ Fifa has backed the 'six-plus-five' rule which aims to place restrictions on foreign players in a team.

The initiative could mean that Everton would only be allowed to field a total of five foreign players in a game at any one time.

Sepp Blatter, the president of football’s world governing body, wants to see the regulation put in place by the 2012/13 season.

Although many clubs in the Premier League will be severely affected by the ruling, David Moyes’ side will not.

Everton consistently fielded five or less non-English players throughout the 2007/08 campaign and in some cases - such as the first Uefa Cup clash with Metalist Kharkiv - named just three foreign players in the starting line-up.

Uefa defines 'home-grown players' as team members who, regardless of age or nationality, have trained with their club or by another club in the same country for at least three years between the ages of 15 and 21.

This would mean that although players such as Victor Anichebe and Lee Carsley play for national teams out side of their domestic club’s country, they would still be defined as a home-grown player.

Speaking at a press conference held in Australia last night, Blatter said: “It’s (the ‘six plus five’ rule) 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.

"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." notas_de_prensa_archivo