Football

Not sure why it works elsewhere as the Spanish, Brazilians, Italians, Germans, Clogs et al top level pros earn similar wages, often in the Premier League, and compete in the Champions League too.

Perhaps because the majority of those players have played at least 2 full seasons in their domestic leagues and therefore tend to understand how competitive football is?

We have a bunch of kids and misfits playing for England that are not good enough to compete at the sharp end and seem to be less than interested in making a proper fist of it. I think that is the apparent lack of interest and willing that I fall down with most.
You've also got a huge group of youngsters that don't get tested week in week out. Explain to me how it is that the next gen series final was contested by Aston Villa and Chelsea with both teams fielding a significant number of homegrown players.

FWIW - I dont think that quotas or giving Chelsea a reserve team in the Football League are the answer.

See above - give players the chance to play first team football in a competitive league and more players will come through as a result. Spanish teams bleed their youngsters in the lower leagues and their national team and club teams seem to be doing alright, regardless of the number of foreigns in their teams.

Clubs are struggling by the bucket load and going into administration at a regular rate so why not get the moneybags involved under strict guidelines and football as a whole will benefit from it.