Jose Luis Astiazaran, the head of La Liga in Spain, has accused the English Premier League of relying too much on foreign talent.
In the wake of England's woeful campaign at the World Cup, accusations have been levelled from all corners about their failure to blood young home-grown players through the Academies from grass-roots level.
Instead, many clubs are now bringing in youngsters from abroad, as well as a host of overseas players now making up the majority of starting line-ups in the English top flight.
The Premier League has only a figure of around just 40 per cent of English representation in the division, a number that is almost half of what the Spanish equivalent contains.
With the Spaniards now in the World Cup final, and with Barcelona and Real Madrid accounting for 10 of the 11 players who started in their 1-0 semi-final win over Germany on Wednesday, Astiarazan made it clear that the English system needs an overhaul.
"In La Liga there are 77.1% Spanish players, 16.7% European and 6.7% non-European," Astiazaran told the Guardian.
"Our strategy is to work very hard with young home-grown players and to try to have a mix between them and experienced players.
"Why is it not a high number of foreign players in La Liga? Because we invest more and more in young Spanish players than in young foreign players.
"England has many times taken young players from outside who are 14, 16 years old. These kind of players are not English. This is one of the most important differences between Spain and England. We invest in young Spanish players.
"In Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United there are a lot of young Spanish, French and Italian players - maybe this is why at the moment you are not creating young English players."
Jennings criticismThe current system for developing talent has also been criticised by former boss of youth development Huw Jennings, who is now Academy director at Fulham.
Jennings claimed that there needed to be a sole, independent regulator of player growth, with the Premier League, the Football League and the Football Association all currently in control of affairs.
"In football regulation, three is a crowd," Jennings told the Daily Telegraph.
"We need to take youth development away from the three organisations. Of course the FA and the Premier League should be represented, but if you appoint separate governance you have a better chance of making progress.
"At the moment we haven't got the concerted campaign and joined up thinking to make the radical change that is needed.
"Let's get rid of the difficulties, differences and politics and have one single body for the governance of youth development with the power to license and reward."
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