PREMIER LEAGUE HARMS ENGLAND

Cristiano Ronaldo currently the world's best footballer - Portuguese playing in England. He led his team (Manchester United) to victory in the UEFA Champions League last month.

Sir David Richards has broken ranks by admitting the England team is being harmed by the number of foreign imports.

Premier League chairman Richards' comments completely contradict the view of Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore, who insisted England's failure to qualify for Euro 2008 had nothing to do with the recent influx of overseas stars.

Speaking at the Third Dubai International Sports Conference, held in the United Arab Emirates principality at the end of May, Richards said in an recording obtained by the Guardian: "Does the Premier League hurt the national side? I think the answer to that has got to be yes."

He added: "We've been a bit lazy in the Premier League over the years. We created a system of academies and every club spends about £3million a year developing young players. But it hasn't worked, because the availability for us to go out and buy the best stars is an easy thing.

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Excuses. Excuses. All I know is I'm watching the English Premier League because of Ronaldo, Tevez, Park, and Drogba. These imports have made EPL a very competitive and exciting league. It showed recently the dominance of English team in European competition esp. in the UEFA Champions League and foreign players have contributed much to the league's success. They are not the enemies here but short-sighted club owners and the English FA (Football Association) for not being able to develop new talents. What about Italy and Spain? Their leagues are full of foreign players yet have a strong national team (with the Azzuri (Italy) as the defending world champions).