Blatter pursues new player regulation
Over the next couple of days, will be picking through the detail of the report president believes gives new hope to his crusade to limit the number of foreign players in club sides.
Fifa's congress voted in favour of an exploration of the last year, but Blatter wanted a full examination, not just a discussion, and he's undeterred by the seemingly implacable opposition of the to any such idea. "If there's a law, a law can be amended," he asserts.
To that end, a Fifa-commissioned study by the Institute For European Affairs will be across the desks of the executive committee members in , asserting that six plus five is in fact compatible with European law. Handy that.
All systems go then? Not quite. "Discriminatory" and "illegal" appears to be the considered view of the Commission, which has made it clear to Fifa that it is "not considering any change to push forward this idea".
Clearly, with his proposal attracting 155 votes for and just five against at congress, Blatter feels he has a mandate to pursue it.
And he has influential supporters, like the and Gordon Smith at the .
DFB general secretary Wolfgang Niersbach is quoted on Fifa's website saying "it would represent progress not just for football but for all team sports".
The is at present sitting comfortably on the fence.
On one side, as aspiring World Cup hosts, there's the brownie points to be earned from falling into line with Blatter.
On the other, there's the view of Lord Triesman, the FA's chairman, that six plus five isn't compatible with EU law and won't be before he's "pushing up the daisies".
The also argues that such a system would be unlikely to deliver what Fifa and Uefa ultimately want, which is international and club football of better quality played in more competitive leagues and competitions.
The Premier League's arguments are many and varied, not least that obliging top clubs to field six English players would hugely inflate the market for the best home qualified players, making them affordable to only the top five or six clubs and altering precisely nothing in terms of the league's competitive balance.
In addition, there's the point about driving up quality.
Has learned nothing of the midfielder's craft from playing alongside the likes of and ?
That's not to say the Premier League is opposed to the principles that lie behind Blatter's quest.
I understand a number of proposals to improve the development of homegrown players will be presented at this summer's meeting of top-flight clubs.
It is to be one of their policy priorities, particularly finding a way to tackle the issue of English players breaking through from the academies into first-team football.
They dismiss the idea that if six plus five can't find favour in law, then there might be some bargaining to be done around, say, four plus seven.
It's the principle that's the thing for the , and that's non negotiable.
Instead of legislating its way around this in a one-size-fits-all directive, it has argued that Fifa should be looking at other ways of achieving its objectives and not wasting energy on a wild goose chase with European lawmakers.
I've been Radio 5 Live's Sports News and Olympics Correspondent since 1998. I'll be looking at the events behind the headlines in all sports but especially on the road to London 2012. 
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