Coppell wants Premiership quotas

Reading manager Steve Coppell says quotas on English players in Premier League teams are necessary in order to improve the national side.

He believes the structure of English football is "a recipe for non-success at international level".

"We're the English Premier League, yet the majority of the teams at the top of the Premiership have very few English players," Coppell told BBC 5 Live.

"We must protect our identity by having a limited number of English players."

England have qualified for the last five major tournaments - their best consecutive run ever - but that streak looks set to come to an end with qualification for the Euro 2008 finals unlikely.

Coppell blamed a lack of clear leadership and too many conflicting interests for England's current woes and called on the Premier League to take the lead in improving the situation.

"If you were starting English football again tomorrow, there is no way you would envisage the set-up we have at the moment where the Football Association has the grass-roots, the national team and the Premier League have the cash cow.

"Our domestic football now is the most entertaining in the world but our national team doesn't duplicate that.

"The only way we can do that is by having direction from the Premier League, it's the only organisation that can really push this through.

"We have the best league in the world, can we now use that to our advantage to produce the best national team in the world?"

Source: BBC Sport