SAM Allardyce has vehemently defended his foreign policy, refusing to accept that he was contributing to England's failure at Under 21 level.

The Wanderers' boss refuses to bear any responsibilty for David Platt's side missing out on next year's European U21 Championship Finals.

"My responsibility is to myself, my family and to Bolton Wanderers - to keep them in the Premiership - not to the England national side," he insisted.

"The responsibility doesn't lie with me it lies with the Football Association, the Premier League chairmen and the Nationwide League chairmen. It lies with the government, in fact.

"If the government wants a top England international side then invest in grass roots football!"

Allardyce was responding to former U21 coach Peter Taylor's defence of Platt, who is under fire after England's elimination following the 2-1 defeat by Portugal at Goodison on Tuesday.

Taylor blamed clubs for not encouraging home grown players. But Allardyce snapped: "The problem lies much deeper than me bringing in foreign players to play in my 11.

"If we want to have the best team and the best players we have to invest but football clubs get no help - not from the FA and certainly not from the government. God knows the government takes enough money out of football; it almost pays for the police force!

"Why does France produce so many players? Why does Portugal? I watched the Portuguese international front line with Ronaldo from Manchester United on the left wing (£12million) Postiga up front (£6 million to Tottenham), Quaresma to Barcelona (£10m) and Viana playing centre-midfield who went to Newcastle for £8m.

"Yet there's a level of grass roots football in our country where the education system has broken down and doesn't bring up talented footballers like that any more. All that responsibility is left with football clubs, who get no help.

"And considering sport is no longer on the education curriculum is it any wonder we don't produce players? The only chance they've got to train or become good players is to come to our club and that's only three times a week in the evenings. Why can't we have them three times a week in the afternoons as well? We've got the facilities. We can bus them in and teach them how to be footballers."

Politics apart, Allardyce believes the England U21s should be doing better with the talent at their disposal.

He added: "David Platt has a tremendously talented squad to choose from but you are judged on results and his have been poor so he comes under the same pressure as we all do.

"The whole of that side plays in the Premiership on a regular basis, apart from Konchesky and Jagielka , but they just haven't produced the results."