Indefatigable Blatter battles for soul of football

By Mike Collett - Anlaysis

LONDON (Reuters) - Whatever else he may be to others, there is absolutely no doubt that FIFA president Sepp Blatter remains a football romantic at heart.

Were he not, he would not persevere with his plan for a laudable but controversial and anachronistic "6+5" rule to limit the number of foreign players eligible to start a match to five.

It is laudable because, at its heart, it would give a sense of national identity back to many clubs, would help local talent progress and would stop clubs buying in mediocre players.

But it appears to be unworkable in the modern world.

FIFA's Congress passed a resolution in Sydney on Friday to continue working towards finding a legal solution to implement the idea, despite the European Union saying time and again the rule would contravene its laws on the free movement of workers.

Blatter intends to challenge the EU by claiming that sport is different from all other trades -- its "specificity" as defined by the Treaty of Lisbon -- and that law-makers could review matters in the future.

What appears to be in no doubt though is that Blatter and football cannot turn back the clock to a time when, for example, English teams fielded mainly English players or Spanish teams mainly Spanish players. He might well be fighting a battle for the soul of football, but the body has moved on.

Blatter and FIFA see the issue as being far wider than just Europe, of course, as befits the world governing body.