Blatter berates clubs for hogging talent

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FIFA president Sepp Blatter took a swipe at Europe's soccer powerhouses on Monday for hogging the sport's talent. "There is kind of like a traffic jam of players in Europe," the chief of world soccer's governing body told delegates at the sport and business conference Soccerex in Dubai. "The big clubs with a lot of money they can afford to buy players - a lot of players, and the best players - and they have 25 players, 30 players in their list. "But football, association football is played by 11 players. Eleven. What are the others doing? Waiting? Recuperating?" Blatter said the wealthy clubs were taking players out of the market and that was reducing the level of competition in soccer. "They cannot play, all of them cannot play," he said. "Already in Europe now there are teams who, after a third of the competition, cannot win (the title). "If that level of competition is missing, then there is something wrong with our sport and we have to tackle it."