News from BreakingNews.ie - this morning FIFA’s plans to curb the international premium of the world’s major soccer leagues bit the dust with the stark - and unprovoked - statement that the proposed ‘Six and Five Rule’, where six of any team’s eleven players must be from the club’s home country, would be in blatant breach of EU principles regarding the free movement of labour.

It’s odd that it was not much more than a decade ago when in the immediate post-Bosman era, the caps imposed by UEFA regarding the make-up of club teams were decimated. I’m not sure why UEFA seem so hell-bent on having a rule hindering the ability of a team to field the players it can afford to buy and pay for.

Manchester United’s usual starting XI this year contained five Englishmen (Rio Ferdinand, Wes Brown, Micahel Carrick or Owen Hargreaves, Paul Scholes, and Wayne Rooney) and a Welshman in Ryan Giggs. Even Chelsea would usually start four - John Terry, Ashley Cole, Frank Lampard and Joe Cole (the only moderately expendable one of this quartet, and so Chelsea certainly wouldn’t dip to less than three).

Perhaps the recent empty-handedness of Arsenal is enough of a rule that clubs themselves should choose if they want to retain domestic players or not. Adam Smith’s Invisible Hand would demand nothing less.