Chelsea would be severely weakened if UEFA and FIFA succeed in bringing in a new limit on foreign players. UEFA and FIFA have proposed that clubs should field at least six home-based players, which in effect would limit the number of foreigners to five.
English players are in a distinct minority among Gianluca Vialli's cosmopolitan squad and the ruling would leave most of their multi-million pound foreign stars on the sidelines.
Chelsea's only regular English players are Dennis Wise, Graeme Le Saux and Chris Sutton.
Manchester United, Arsenal and Leeds would be affected far less.
Gunners boss Arsene Wenger would arguably field six Englishmen while treble winner, Manchester United, could take their pick from eight England internationals in Gary Neville, Phil Neville, Wes Brown, David Beckham, Paul Scholes, Nicky Butt, Andy Cole and Teddy Sheringham, while David May would also be in the reckoning.
The ruling would be some time off yet, but it is not inconceivable and the European Union has agreed to help FIFA and UEFA tackle the problems caused by the Bosman ruling.
In a landmark meeting in Brussels, Viviane Reding, the European Commissioner for Education and Culture - with responsibility for sport - accepted FIFA and UEFA's argument that the Bosman ruling has had some negative consequences.
UEFA and FIFA told Reding they feel the restriction would help the situation, but she replied that she is limited in what she can do because of the freedom of movement of labour within the EU.
