Premier League chief Richard Scudamore has intimated they'll fight any push from outside to bring foreign limits.

Scudamore said that the UEFA Home Grown Rule would have the perverse effect of forcing players such as Ryan Giggs to play for England rather than his home side of Wales, and that big clubs would still attract the world's best 15 and 16 year olds from overseas and then train them for three years to meet the rule.

"In the case of the England team, the UEFA definition of Home Grown includes Cesc Fabregas but not Owen Hargreaves," he argued.

Scudamore said that the six-player quota idea would be even worse.

"Replacing excellent non-English players with England qualified players of lesser ability would reduce playing standards in the Premier without improving the talent available to the England manager," he said.

The top-flight's representative also pointed out that Chelsea's Russian owner Roman Abramovich was committed to boosting young English talent. He added: "Foreign owners are far more committed to it than Mr Bates ever was at Chelsea."