Richard Scudamore, the Premier League chief executive, has launched a scathing attack on the Football Association, expressing frustration about how his organisation is blamed for England's failures at major tournaments.
The most recent criticism of the Premier League came this month when the England manager, Roy Hodgson, complained about two big matches, Liverpool v Manchester United and Arsenal v Tottenham, being moved to 1 September for live television five days before the national team play Moldova at Wembley in the first of two crucial World Cup qualifiers.
Asked if he was upset by the view that the Premier League is culpable for England's failure, Scudamore said: "It frustrates me enormously because it is so palpably not true. We are putting on a competition that the best players in the world want to come here and play in.
"It is not my fault the country is only 60 million. There are 212 countries playing this game. We are blessed to have 20 of the world's largest 50 clubs. Within that 20, between three and five of the biggest 10. There are only 10 football clubs vying for this top talent.
"The idea an England team is going to be put together that will somehow beat the world is logically and mathematically implausible. We can put out a good team, just like Andy Murray can win Wimbledon and Justin Rose can win the US Open. Good things do happen but they are not an automatic right.
"The whole thing seems to me that if England don't win something it is someone else's fault. I have never, in my 15 years with the Premier League, never said the Premier League's success, or lack of, is someone else's fault. You have to make it yourself.
"Let's run the reverse argument. Where does that leave the people at the FA in terms of their accountability? It can't be our fault. It is bigger than us. It is not the Premier League who ripped up the playing fields. It is not the Premier League that didn't put the education into schools that the government should have done. That is not the Premier League's fault.
"Clearly, we have a job to do. We have not won the World Cup since 1966. We didn't start until 1992. What happened between 1966 and 1992? Whose fault was that? The whole thing is immenselyfrustrating. It cannot be our fault on any level."
Scudamore is also determined to fight any attempt from Fifa to move the 2022 World Cup from summer to winter as Sepp Blatter, the president, would like to do.
Asked if this will happen, Scudamore said: "I'm not going to say I think it will because I'm still working the best I can, garnering enough support, a groundswell of support, to make sure it doesn't happen in winter.
"We do want to have it in summer - the summer is the right time. If Qatar is unable to hold a proper tournament in the summer for fans then it should be put on somewhere else is my simple view. My view is if you can't actually meet the criteria of looking after the fans, if that is what Mr Blatter is now saying, then you should take it somewhere else where they can look after the fans.
"When the technical bid book went in, it had to go through everything, like fan experience. The idea the technical committee did not know people were going to be exposed to that heat is crazy. If Mr Blatter says it is not right for the fans he should move it."
Scudamore believes a winter window for the tournament is totally unacceptable.
"The world has a calendar that's geared around finding those two months every four years in the summer to have the World Cup," he said. "To alter it to a different time of year messes up everybody's calendar, not just ours."
Scudamore believes it is too early for the Premier League to consider legal action but did not rule out a challenge from elsewhere. "That's something that is far too contentious really. It's not a very edifying prospect is it? Taking on Fifa, the world governing body. At the end of the day we'll do our lobbying, our work, but it's far too premature to think of legal action."
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