UK Football

By Julian Linden

SYDNEY, May 30 (Reuters) - England Football Association chief executive Brian Barwick was unconvinced by FIFA's proposal to limit the number of foreign players in starting teams, a move opposed by the top English Premier League sides.

While Barwick said he was happy for the sport's world governing body to explore the proposal, he said clubs should still be allowed to select any players they wanted.

"It's about balance," Barwick told reporters after Friday's FIFA Congress in Sydney. "We're still great believers in the meritocracy that players should be in the team on performance and on ability first and foremost."

The FIFA Congress voted overwhelmingly for the controversial "6+5" objectives at Friday's meeting, but said they could not implement them yet because they contravened European law.

Instead, they agreed to explore the proposal in the hope of phasing it in over the next four years.

"Certainly you can understand the general principal of further exploration but there are keen exponents of things staying within domestic and international law," Barwick said.

"And anything that would go forward, any initiative of this type, would have to meet that criteria first.

"European law at the moment is pretty exacting on these issues and unless those types of hurdles can be overcome there is still issues to take forward."

The 6+5 proposal, which will limit the number of foreign players in a starting team to five, has been criticised by some of the top English clubs who believe they should be able to decide their team composition.

"It's interesting to point out that Manchester United did win the (Champions League final) with six English players so on meritorious terms they got in the team on ability alone," said Barwick.

"Yes, there's further exploration but where it ends up who knows?"