Hamburg - The number of foreign players in Europe's top five football leagues increased to 42.4 per cent last season, an increase of 3.5 per cent from the previous season, according to figures released Thursday.
The figure reached 59.5 per cent in the English Premier League and was at 52.6 per cent among the top five clubs in each league in England, Spain, Italy, Germany and
France.
For the first time, foreign players scored more than half of the total number of goals (51.9 per cent), according to the study by Professional Football Players Observatory.
By far the greatest number of foreign players came from Brazil, which exported 158 players, an increase of 12.9 per cent.
The Professional Football Players Observatory was created with the support of football's world governing body FIFA out of a partnership between the International Center
for Sports Studies at Neuchatel, Switzerland and the University of Franche-Comte.
FIFA president Jospeh Blatter wants to curb the use of foreign players with a "6 plus 5" rule limiting clubs to to five foreigners in their starting line-ups. (dpa)
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