The findings by the International Centre for Sports Studies (CIES) and the University of Franche-Comté (France) add weight to Blatter's campaign to introduce the six-plus-five rule which would promote homegrown talent.

The ruling would mean a team could only field five foreigners in their starting XI, which the president believes would help "maintain a balance in football".

He also believes that the proposal has the backing of many football associations.

He said: "I can guarantee that continents like South America and Africa are behind us on this, as they are the main suppliers for big European clubs and they are suffering from the exodus of their players."

The third edition of the "Annual Review of the European Football Players' Labour Market" revealed that foreigners made up 42.4% of all players employed by English, Spanish, Italian, German and French clubs during the 2007-08 season.

This represents a 3.5% increase over the previous season.

The figure reached 59.5% in the English Premier League and 52.6% among the top five clubs in each league.