Premier League chief Richard Scudamore insists they're serious about producing better talent for the England national team.
Scudamore says the Elite Player Performance Plan was borne out of England's failure to reach the 2008 Euros.
He told the Daily Mail: "You can plot the traces of the EPPP. I can date it: November 21, 2007, England v Croatia, 2-3, in the rain. I was there with a number of people. We went ballistic. That's when we went away and recruited Ged Roddy (who oversees the EPPP and youth academies) and said, 'We've got to do something to get the thing back up'.
"We care as passionately as anybody about England winning. You sit and watch these tournaments and wish we could do better but there is a limit to what we can realistically do.
"Players have to be developed at clubs - they are the hub of development. In the early days it's schools, which is why we're heavily investing in school sport. We want to build that because we do want a better England team."
