Scudamore defends Premier League

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Blatter this week spoke out against the Premier League, accusing the competition of being too focused on making money, and complaining that there are not enough homegrown players in first XIs.

Speaking at the launch of the Equality Standard, a framework of measures for clubs set out by anti-discrimination campaigners Kick It Out, Scudamore said: "I do struggle where nationalism, jingoism and patriotism stops and where actually some sort of xenophobic rhetoric takes over."

He added: "And there is a certain amount of that in the football world when I keep getting told that 'how can English football be English football when there are not enough English players in a particular team?'

"I struggle with that when everyone bar David Beckham who is qualified to play for England at the top level is playing at home.

"I start to worry that these start to sound like the sort of attitudes that are quite difficult to justify in my football world and I for one am not going to allow that agenda to be washed over.

"There is nobody more proud of the England football team than me but we can't let that spill over into fear and this sort of agenda."

Scudamore moved to clarify his comments on Friday night, stressing that national pride and patriotism are natural and proper reasons for supporting national teams while making the point this should never topple over into jingoism or xenophobia.

He also wishes to make clear that at no point did his remarks on FIFA's motives for promoting 6+5 mean anything other than to intend to support the patriotic ties between fans and their national side.