The Dutchman told RIA Novosti that only exceptional foreign players should be admitted to the country's Premier League.

"[Foreign players] must have extra quality. But if they are of average quality, and they stop development because they are occupying, for whatever the reasons might be, positions of upcoming young players, this is bad for Russian football."

The problem of foreign players in Russian soccer was highlighted by President Vladimir Putin in his annual televised question-and-answer session at the end of October.

"There are too many of them. We need to restrict their number, because when it comes to composing the national team, we do not have enough players," Putin said.

Hiddink, 60, who signed a two-year contract worth 4 million euros earlier this year, said the problem was not in the presence of foreigners in Russian clubs, but in their number.

"[I have] nothing against foreigners, I am a foreigner myself in Russia. But we cannot have that many foreigners, more than 200, not having extra quality. We are then stopping the development of young players, because they don't play."

He said the problem could be resolved by imposing a restriction on the number of foreign players so that Russian soccer does not waste its own young talent.

"To allow Russian football to start developing, a limit should be put on legionaries [foreign players], the number of foreigners should be brought down to three, four or five players [per team], so that Russian football can develop," Hiddink said.

"Then the heads of clubs will start thinking about how to raise their own players, and they will begin perfecting old football schools, and create new schools."

Russian national soccer has achieved little success in recent years, in spite of reforms. The national team performed poorly at Euro-2004 in Portugal, and failed to qualify for this summer's World Cup in Germany.

Vyacheslav Fetisov, the head of the Russian Federal Agency for Physical Culture and Sport, also voiced his concern in late October over the number of foreigners in Russian soccer.

"The longer this problem drags the less chances our boys will have to show what they can do," he said.

Earlier the President of the Russian Football Union, Vitaly Mutko, said that Premier League clubs would not be allowed more than five foreign players by 2010, compared to the current limit of eight per club.

Mutko also said that as of next year, clubs will have to pay $30,000 to the union for each foreign player.

MOSCOW, November 17 (RIA Novosti)