Beckham defends imported players

Updated 08.30 Fri Nov 23 2007

Keywords: euro 2008, david beckham, football, sport

David Beckham does not believe the Premier League's foreign players have affected the quality of the England team.

The Football Association has promised to look closely at the performance of the England team now they have been knocked out of Euro 2008.

"I think it's just an excuse" - David Beckham

And pundits claim the recent influx of imported players has reduced the number of English players picking up necessary experience to play at international level.

Beckham said: "I think it's just an excuse, personally. Because we got knocked out of the Euros, people are going to look for certain excuses and one of them that was thrown at me was 'Are there too many foreigners in the game?'

"For me, foreigners coming into the Premier League and into our country has lifted the profile of the game, it has lifted the quality of the game.

"If you look at statistics, in 1974 and 1978 when we didn't qualify for the World Cup, there was probably 90 per cent of the English league that was English players."

He added: "Foreign managers, like Arsene Wenger, Jose Mourinho and Rafael Benitez, have come in and made our game a lot more interesting and brought great players in, and lifted the profile."