"Because of the work permits situation there's a huge difference between who we can sign and who others can get," he told the News of the World.
"Eindhoven can sign Romario and Ronaldo as kids, we can't. These players generate money as well. Both of them left the club for about £18million.
"The market is smaller for us than the likes of Eindhoven, Porto, Belgian clubs, French clubs. That's why we're sometimes forced to go and pay money elsewhere."
He continued: "We have a list of players from Ecuador, Honduras, you name it, but we can't get them in. You'd need to change British law to alter that.
"That's why there are constraints on us, and it's about time people learned there are constraints on us."
Strachan also revealed that it is not only the restrictive regulations that are causing him problems, financial restraints caused by cash-laden leagues such as the EPL are also a concern.
He said: "I don't think we've got the money to buy walk-into-the-team type of players. If you look at the market in England and Spain, even Russia, it's Andy Johnson £12m, Louis Saha £10m. We can't afford that.
"Even if I paid that for Andy Johnson, is he better that Scott McDonald or Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink?
"Most of our deals have to be gambling deals. Massimo Donati £1.1m, Barry Robson the same, Paul Hartley the same. It's all those kind of deals at the moment."
The issue relating to work permits only manages to disadvantage Celtic further in the transfer market. If Celtic were able to sign players out with the restrictive regulations they could look to tempt young players from international markets and turn them into stars. This unnecessary rule also restricts teams like Celtic in that they can only purchase players once they have become established internationals. Thus meaning that they have to pay top money for players rather than being able to develop young players from abroad into superstars.
Time for our esteemed Chairman to get involved in this me thinks!
Yours in Celtic
Clydebuilt