Ex-Chelsea chief Ken Bates says foreign owners ‘should never have been allowed’

Former Chelsea chief Ken Bates has branded the FA “very weak” and insisted they should never have allowed foreign owners to buy Premier League clubs.

Bates, who sold the Blues to Roman Abramovich for £140million back in 2003, is also keen to see the number of overseas players in the English top-flight reduced.

The 89-year-old recently opened up on his concerns with foreign businessmen in Premier League football when the issue was raised during discussions over Project Big Picture.

Manchester United and Liverpool were leading proposals for the project, which would have seen the top flight reduced to 18 teams and the League Cup abolished.

And despite flogging Chelsea to a Russian billionaire himself, Bates has hit out at the FA for allowing foreign owners to take over the Premier League’s biggest clubs.

“Manchester United owned by Americans. Liverpool owned by other Americans,” he said in an interview with The Telegraph.

“The first thing they said was let’s reduce the Premier League by two clubs. Let those two resign. Get out of it. Nobody asked for them to come.

“The great thing about English football is you kick off in August and all start even. What you did 20 years ago has nothing to do with what you do today.

“The trouble is that the FA are very weak. I found that when I was on the FA council and the FA board.

“They should have introduced rules preventing foreign ownership of football clubs.”

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    • Bates also believes that the Government should tax overseas payments for transfers and agent fees, adding: “Too much money goes overseas and they don’t pay any tax.

    “The Government should introduce tax for any payments overseas for transfer fees, players’ agents, image rights or any of that, 25 to 30 per cent.

    “The other thing, they should charge outgoing transfer fees against tax. That will bring down the transfer fees, reduce the number of foreign players coming in and let the English players play in their English league.”

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