Overseas leagues envy Premier League, says Scudamore

Rival European leagues envy the success of the Premier League and would be happy to see its power and influence diminished, the league's chief executive Richard Scudamore has said.

Scudamore said that although he believed the Premier League was the most exciting and popular domestic league in the world, he had a number of concerns over its future.

"A real worry is that our European colleagues in other leagues are getting jealous," he said.

"I am sure the legislators and the regulators in Europe would like to see us levelled down a little bit."

Scudamore has criticised FIFA president Sepp Blatter's proposal to impose a "6+5" ruling on club teams allowing no more than five foreign players to start a match.

"Why would we allow legislators in Europe to look at us and say 'oh they are far too successful, look at that Premier League, look at English football - it is better than ours. What can we do to bring it down'," he said of the plan.

"That's no recipe for progress and I worry about that more than anything else.

"They look at our league, look at our players, look at our incomes, the fact we have three teams in the Champions League semi-finals, they look at the FA being the most successful FA anywhere in world football and they look at Wembley Stadium.

"I am talking about English football generally. There is an envy out there. You cannot deny it. It is there."

Scudamore was speaking after the announcement of a government, FA and Premier League initiative to donate a further £135 million ($264 million) over the next three years to the development of grass roots football in England.

Scudamore earned widespread vilification and the Premier League was harshly criticised by Blatter when he revealed plans in February to play an extra, 39th Premier League match, overseas.

Although that idea has been shelved, Scudamore said he believed the league was the most exciting in the world and disputed the claims made by Newcastle United manager Kevin Keegan on Monday that the league was becoming boring.

"I don't think anybody in their right mind seriously thinks it's boring. Kevin had just come off and lost 2-0 (to Chelsea) and was speaking after the heat of the battle," Scudamore said.

"Yes, we have had the same four teams finishing in the top four for the last few seasons but that's a product of the Champions League, it's self-fulfilling."

He also said that the strength of the league was reflected by its achievements in Europe, with Manchester United and Chelsea playing in the first all-English Champions League final in Moscow on May 21.