GREG DYKE, the Football Association chairman, has said that mediocre overseas players are taking places in club squads that should be going to young English talent.

The FA has announced proposals to cut the number of players from outside the European Union coming into the English game by up to 50%, including banning clubs sending such players out on loan, preventing Football League clubs from signing them and making the appeals process much tougher.

Some 122 overseas players were granted visas between 2009 and 2013, 23 of them in the Football League.

"Everyone recognises the present system is bust," Dyke said. "The rules say elite non-European players - the very best - should be allowed to come in and we agree with that.

"What we are saying is there are a lot that aren't [the very best], that don't play that much and take squad places and a lot particularly in the Football League disappear after a year or so. The system doesn't work."