Scott Wilson
May 1st, 2008
IT is not quite as ludicrous
as his suggestion
that female footballers
should wear tighter shorts,
but FIFA president Sepp
Blatter's proposal for reducing
the number of overseas
players in the English game
invites just as much
ridicule.
The horse hasn't so much
bolted as disappeared over
the horizon without anyone
giving chase, yet Blatter is
still talking about a panicked
attempt to shut the
stable door.
Having come to the conclusion
that the Premier
League boasts too many
non-English players about
ten years after supporters
in this country started saying
exactly the same thing,
Blatter has come up with a
cunning plan.
It is called the "Six-plusfive-
plan" and involves
teams fielding a minimum
of six domestic footballers
and a maximum of five foreign
players. And like the
cunning plans devised by
Baldrick in Blackadder, it is
doomed to fail spectacularly.
It is not so much the sentiment
of Blatter's proposals
that is ill-advised - nobody
can dispute that the
England national team has
suffered because of the lack
of homegrown talent currently
performing in the
Premier League - it is more
his pig-headed refusal to acknowledge
either the law of
the land or reality.
European law guarantees
the freedom of movement
of workers, so rather than
proposing a binding ruling,
Blatter is proposing a "gentleman's
agreement" with
the continent's national associations.
It will not work, firstly
because the European
Union's executive commission
has warned of multimillion
pound court cases if
the agreement was to be
challenged in court, and
also because turkeys will
not vote for Christmas.
Neither the FA nor the
Premier League want to do
anything that might detract
from the current popularity
and marketability of English
football. They've asked
themselves whether foreign
television viewers would
rather watch a Liverpool
side containing Fernando
Torres or Peter Crouch, and
quickly done the maths.
UEFA boss Michel Platini
has come up with a slightly
more sensible compromise,
whereby a quota of locallytrained
players could be imposed
without any reference
to nationality.
Therefore, an 18-year-old
Ghanaian who had spent
three years in Arsenal's
Academy would be treated
the same as an identicallyaged
teenager from
Streatham.
The plan is much more
workable in terms of the
law, but would achieve precious
little. The top clubs
would simply expand their
Academies to stockpile
hundreds of talented overseas
youngsters. In terms of
improving the national
side, it would not take long
for the England manager to
find himself in a worse position
than he inhabits at
the minute.
The reality of the situation
is that it is impossible
to turn back the clock.
Much as we would like a
world where Arsenal win
the Champions League
with 11 Englishmen and the
nearest Manchester United
come to a foreign striker is
a wily schemer from Scotland,
it is not going to happen.
English football has built
its success on the back of
its overseas talent. As a result,
it is far too late to start
complaining about it now.
THE Premier League will
have one less foreign manager,
for a day or two at
least, when Sven-Goran
Eriksson departs as Manchester
City boss next
month.
It is hard to feel too
sorry for the Swede as he
prepares to pocket his second
multi-million
pound pay-off in the
space of two years,
but it is ludicrous
that he is losing his
job despite guaranteeing
City a
top-ten finish.
Thaksin
Shinawatra
has
displayed
a breathtaking
ignorance
of how
English
football
works, and if
he is to remove
every
manager that
fails to secure
a Champions
League place,
he will be
needing every
last baht of
the assets
that remain
under the
control of
the Thai
government.
Shinawatra
is
due to
stand
trial on
corruption
charges later this year. In
the eyes of his accusors,
Eriksson is fortunate to be
leaving with anything at
all. As far as they are concerned,
it is usually the
City chairman that is the
one being paid off.
STOKE CITY, who are
favourites to claim the second
automatic promotion
place to the Premier League
on Sunday, currently boast
seven loan players. Hull
City, who are the only team
that can stop them, are
making do with four. Little
wonder then that both are
already being described as
next year's Derby County.
If Stoke do make it to the
top-flight, they will have to
sign half a new team just to
replace the players that will
be disappearing off to their
parent club at the end of
the current campaign.
Hull have no chance of
signing Manchester United
striker Frazier Campbell
this summer, so they will
have to shell out millions of
pounds to replace the 15
goals the youngster has
contributed to their promotion
push.
Neither club would have
achieved promotion had
they had to rely on their
own players alone. Surely it
is wrong that an ability to
exploit the loan market is
sufficient to secure
promotion to the
Premier League.
PERFECTION is
almost impossible
to achieve in any
sport, yet Ronnie
O'Sullivan continues
to trot
out 147s
with a staggering
regularity.
The
Rocket
is not
without
his
faults,
yet his
skill
around a
snooker
table renders
most of any
criticism irrelevant.
Supremely
talented yet
steadfastly
insolent, he is a
worthy successor
to Alex Higgins'
crown.
9:42am Thursday 1st May 2008
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