SO Sydney FC has signed another foreign player. That brings the count to six - if you count naturalised Northern IrishmanTerry McFlynn - which is more than half a team.

I have nothing against Milos Dimitrijevic, the latest Serbian player to enter the A-League. I simply don't know him - and that's the point.

We keep bemoaning the lack of young Australian talent coming through. We have seen the Socceroos fade before our eyes as we stick with the players long past their use-by date. Our national youth teams are struggling and we couldn't qualify for the Olympics.

It poses two questions: Is there a dearth of talent? Or are the new generation simply not getting a go?

Across the nine Australian-based A-League clubs, there are 39 foreign players, many of them journeymen barely known in their own country, let alone outside it.

You can mount a compelling case that they are holding back our own players.

Like Sydney, Adelaide have six foreign players: Cassio, Jeronimo Neumann, Isais, Cirio, Marcelo Carrusca and Fabio Ferreira. So do the Melbourne Heart, with Patrick Gerhardt, Michael Mifsud, Jonatan Germano, Rob Wielart, Orlando Engelaar and Andrea Migliorini.

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When most people look at the problems with England's national team, they start and end with the number of foreigners playing in the Premier League.

We are heading down the same path.

While Nikola Petkovic has been Sydney's best player this season and no one could begrudge what Alessandro Del Piero has brought to the league, there's a much bigger issue here.

How much responsibility should A-League clubs take for developing homegrown talent and how much should they be held accountable for the fortunes of our national teams?

What's the point of having a youth league if you keep ignoring it? We are driving young players overseas before they are ready because they can't get a crack here. It's not right.

I'm all for big-name marquee players, who add value to the league. They help develop our players the game. Del Piero and Shinjo Ono have been worth every cent for what they have brought to Australian football.

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This is my plan to address an issue in Australian football many people would gladly ignore:

* Import quotas at each A-League club should be reduced from five to three, because once players come and become naturalised they still count as overseas players in football terms and can bloat the figure out to six and seven.

* The injury rule, whereby clubs can fly in overseas players, should be scrapped immediately. It was originally introduced before the youth league. Tell me, what's the point of having youth teams if we don't use them.

* FFA should have a technical panel to assess whether a foreign player offers more to the league than homegrown talent before any contract is registered. There should be stringent criteria - whether they have played internationals, the clubs and leagues they have been in and what impact will they have on Australian talent.

I'm not being xenophobic here. I acknowledge what the right overseas players have brought to the game. I'm looking at the bigger picture of Australian football.

Dimitrijevic might be a star. He could even lead the Sky Blues to silverware. But what does that do for the code as a whole.

News_Image_File: Dimitri Petratos could be scoring for Sydney had they not let him go.

It's interesting to note that the best teams in the league over the past few years - Central Coast (four imports), Brisbane Roar (four) and Melbourne Victory (three) - have taken a more domestic view. And it has paid off.

Sure, Besart Berisha and Thomas Broich have been central to the Roar's success, yet they are complemented by the likes of Ivan Franjic, who has emerged as a genuine World Cup contender.

Dimitri Petratos was a young player Sydney FC let go, and he scored a hat-trick for the Roar when the two teams last met. He's a 21-year-old Penrith boy forced to move interstate for a chance, while Ranko Despotovic was signed from Serbia.

If we want Australia to be successful on the world stage, we can't keep throwing roadblocks in front of our young players. You don't know how a player will cope until he's thrown into the furnace.

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When you look at our golden generation, Harry Kewell, Mark Viduka, Brett Emerton and the like were given their chance at an early age. They grabbed that opportunity and never looked back.

I have nothing against Ranko Despotovic, Ali Abbas and the rest of the foreign legion at Sydney. I have nothing against the imports spread right across our game.

I just care more about the future of Australian football as a whole.

FOREIGN LEGION BY CLUB

Adelaide 6: Cassio, Jeronimo Neumann, Isais, Cirio, Marcelo Carrusca, Fabio Ferreira

Brisbane 4: Besart Berisha, Liam Miller, Thomas Broich, Henrique

Central Coast 4: John Hutchinson, Marcos Flores, Nick Montgomery, Marcel Seip

Melbourne Heart 6: Patrick Gerhardt, Michael Mifsud, Jonatan Germano, Rob Wielart, Orlando Engelaar, Andrea Migliorini

Melbourne Victory 3: Guilherme Finkler, Adama Traore, Pablo Contreras

Newcastle Jets 3: Emile Heskey, Michael Bridges, Kew Jaliens

Perth Glory 4: Ryo Nagai, Sidnei, William Gallas, Steven McGarry

Sydney FC 6: Alessandro Del Piero, Ali Abbas, Ranko Despotovic, Milos Dimitrijevic, Terry McFlynn, Nikola Petkovic

Wellington Phoenix 6: Manny Muscat, Paul Ifill, Carlos Hernandez, Kenny Cunningham, Albert Riera, Stein Huysegems

Western Sydney 5: Shinji Ono, Youssouf Hersi, Jerome Polenz, Iacopo La Rocco, Mateo Poljak

* Doesn't include New Zealand players