The government official overseeing football said that Brazil’s plans to reform the sport "after decades of mismanagement won’t include an English Premier League-style model because it would weaken the national team," according to Tariq Panja of BLOOMBERG. Lawmakers, club presidents and the Brazilian football confederation (CBF) "have been discussing the creation" of a new football structure as Brazil prepares to host the 2014 World Cup. Brazil national secretary for football Toninho Nascimento said, "It’s great league, but it’s very bad for the national team. We don’t want this in Brazil." More than half of Premier League team owners "come from outside the U.K. English players account for less than a third of playing time this season." Nascimento, a former sports editor of Brazil’s O Globo, said that "although the spectacle served up by the 21-year-old Premier League is 'marvelous,' it comes at a cost." Squads full of foreigners "harm national team prospects." He said, "We have to be careful about what we do. The system in England is a big problem." About 70% of all Premier League players "are foreign compared to 6.9 percent in Brazil, according to website transfermarkt.co.uk" (BLOOMBERG, 10/28).
