Greg Dyke made some interesting points about English football last week. A major concern must be the recent failures of English sides in tournaments and the apparent lack of young English players coming through. Mr Dyke mentioned that the FA would be looking at several areas, including quotas over the coming months. Here is what I think we should do: ⢠Quotas â I appreciate that applying a quota rule to our leagues would contravene European law, but I think itâs essential. Our young talent is being blocked by cheap foreign imports. I would implement a rule saying that at least 6 players in the starting XI of each game must be qualified to play for England. The rule to be relaxed for Welsh sides to be English or Welsh. This would be applied to all English leagues and domestic cup competitions). ⢠Regard the U21, U20 tournaments as being important to the development of our young players and take the strongest team possible ⢠All England teams (all age groups) to play in a similar way ⢠Reduce the size of the Premier League to 18 ( at the same time restructure League 2 and the Conference to be League 2 North and South) ⢠Implement a mid-winter break (and ban teams from playing overseas friendlies during that break) ⢠Restrict the number of overseas players entering our Academies (max of 2 per club per age group) ⢠Coaching emphasis on youngsters to concentrate on technical skills ⢠Change of culture in identifying good young players which currently seems to be about size, pace and power (Messi, Xavi and Iniesta are not big!!) ⢠Small sided games/pitches to be extended to older age groups - 13-14 years. This keeps the emphasis on technique, not about who can kick it the furthest. ⢠Youth coaches to be encouraged to play ALL kids not just the best ones (you donât get better by sitting on the bench). ⢠Winning is not the be all and end all at that age â more important to teach kids how to play and enjoy it ⢠More Premiership money to be ploughed into grass roots youth football â perhaps a FA levy which the FA could distribute to youth set ups that meet itâs youth policy criteria ⢠Work with the Government to enhance school sports ⢠Train our coaches better, including making senior badges harder to achieve
Some good ideas there and nothing that I would disagree with, however I think that not much can be achieved unless we focus also on the ownership side of English football, why limit quotas to the playing level ?. How many of our premier league clubs are under English ownership ? Maybe we could profit through looking at ways of increasing the possibilities of fans sharing in club ownership as in Germany or Spain. Also the make up of English football crowds has changed (at least in the premiership), and, whereas. fans of the 70s or 80s would have walked out if their club had fielded mostly foreign players, the modern fan wants entertainment and success. How many Man UTD or Chelsea fans would accept a quota of English players if it meant lack of success in the champions league ? Not many I think. I think England's failure to produce World class players over the last 20 years or so may be partly to do with sociological changes in English society and are, partly, irreversable. Most of England's finest players came originally from an industrial working class background - completely different from e.g. Rugby players, a class which has all but disappeared in England. Football in the 90's in England had to go beyond it's working class origins. This transformation being difficult in as much as Rugby, being favoured higher up the school system, prevents football from becoming a truly national sport. Compared to a country like Germany which a. did not go through the same deindustrialization process as us and consequently still has heavily industrial towns such as Dortmund and b. Gets it's migrants mostly from other football playing countries e.g. Turkey, Italy, Poland,Spain etc. most of whom are now naturalized and able to play for Germany. In contrast English football profits very little from e.g. Indian and Pakistani immigration - maybe there is room for improvement there at the grass roots level.
Bloody hell!! Got through that eventually. You make some valid points but you may want to re-read your posts and check your punctuation and paragraphs mate! By the way, Man Utd and to a lesser extent Chelsea have historically fielded quite a few home-grown players.......Man Utd especially.
We need to go to countries like Spain and Germany, work out what they are doing so well and bring these practices back to the UK. The problem will be taking the power and money away from the premier league.
The future of the game is in creating interest and developing our coaches and youngsters. Firstly we need to have good quality coaches who are paid a decent wage - with the money in the game, the FA/EPL can afford to subsidise this (see below). Coaches should have a scheme of development (linked to pay structure). The FA will be responsible for training of coaches to the standards and ongoing development of new skills (to retain their pay structure level, coaches must meet these standards). Clubs who employ coaches in the scheme will be provided with a salary subsidy which is linked to the number of home grown players being developed (based on their eligibility to play for GB). As the FA/EPL are subsidising the development of the player any selling on fee (or fees) will generate 3% return, or whatever figure, (eg £1m will generate £30k back) to provide additional support to the system. This should remain for the playing lifetime of the player (as an element of 'giving back to the game'). EPL clubs who 'steal' players from lower leagues will have to compensate the club based on the years of development, effort from the club, achievement of the player to date (eg appearances in first team, club and country honours) and also compensation back into the system. This would provide career coaches, with the correct skills and give every club in the country the opportunity to develop good quality young players who can contribute to club and country. We would meet the need to develop young players with the right skills and to get clubs focusing on home grown players.
I would agree with these words however I would change most of them with other words that mean different things and then put them in a different order English culture and thinking will always be undone ... It has collective form and based on one lucky World Cup win the nation IMO will never beat superior thinking about its football The world has shown England how to play the game and we still think we are the masters of it ... Wake up English football without revolution will always eat itself IMO
I appreciate the thought that's gone into your post, but seeing as the very first point you make is utterly impossible, and illegal, to apply, then I fear everything else falls down. Clubs will ALWAYS buy the best value player they can get - one that provides the most amount of skill for the least amount of money. Sometimes that will be a Bale (huge money but huge skill) and sometimes it'll be a Marc Nygaard (didn't cost much and contributed even less). But market forces dictate that this will always be true. If quota systems are imposed, all that will happen is that: 1. Managers will be forced to sell their most valuable assets (their great overseas players) into a marketplace where the buyers simply won't exist any more (because everyone else will ALSO be trying to sell non-home grown players). So their value will plummet and clubs will lose money. 2. Managers will be forced to field teams with players out of position, and with less ability, simply to make up the numbers of home grown players. So they will suffer as a team and be less successful - losing them both revenue from league positions, as well as revenue from the turnstiles as people choose not to pay to see an inferior product. 3. Foreign revenue will dry up as overseas views won't pay into the TV and merchandising pot to follow players they do not know. 3. Lawsuits. Try and restrict trade across the EU and there will be hundreds of them. Costing the clubs even more money. The only way that the national game in England will improve (which is the real question) is the investment in players at a formative age, and valuing a winning mentality and pride in performance and achievements. Kids need to understand that getting a professional contract isn't to be viewed just as a passport to a big car, a penthouse flat and all the WAGs they can consume. Playing for the team and the badge must become the driving factor for the players of tomorrow.
How do we make English football better? Get rid of 99% of the Englishmen involved in running and coaching it and play it somewhere else. Preferably Spain, Germany or Brazil.
I spent 2 weeks in Naples and the only full size pitch I saw was the one we once played on in sorrento. They have lots of small dirt pitches that are caged but the walls are not in play, thus you cant just bang it off the end wall and get the rebound, the only way to score and win is with lots of close control and intricate passing. I was invited to play a game with some of the local ultras and it was great. Contrast this with the kids being put on full size pitches here and the best thing they can think of is to do is hoof it nearer the opponents goal.
Quotas won't work - EU law will see to that. Foreign owners are here to stay. It's about creating an infrastructure that will encourage development of British players and developing first class coaches that will develop players with skills. If Dyke wants to see us in a final in 2022 we need to be working on the 9-15 year olds right now!
They know they will fit in, have no problems with the language or weather. Saying that, Ive always thought Scandinavian players were good value for money, they are about as British as you can get in knowing the language, have the toughness to play here and their weather is even worse than ours!
I will try not to write a novel this time - I promise ! There are several changes I would like to see in the England set up. 1. There seems to be a lack of mental preparation for big tournaments. By that I mean that I can accept losing to World class teams, but find it difficult to accept inept performances such as those against Algeria or the United States at the last World Cup. We may not have so many World class players but we do have enough to dispose of teams made up of French 2nd division players (Algeria) and the U.S.A. (English 2nd Div.). You simply cannot legislate for such performances where players simply do not perform to their abilities. 2. We need more psychological guidance of players at an early age (as in Germany), in order to avoid burn out etc. Also the medical back up teams are not of the same quality as in Germany. Bear in mimd here that the physio from Bayern Munich also handles their olympic sprinters. 3. We need to shorten the English season in some way. 4. I would change our national anthem. Many of our problems with English patriotism arise from this because it is so divisive in contrast with other anthems. I do not want to send her victorious, or have her reigning over us and want an anthem which all Englishmen can sing with gusto before matches. Judging from the reactions of several players during the anthem I believe that I am not alone in this. 5. We cannot copy from Germany, because the national team in Germany has a completely different position in German society. Jurgen Klinsmann was able to influence the top teams in the Bundesliga in a way which would be unthinkable in England. Also there is no power struggle between F.A. and premier league in Germany, just one authority, the D.F.B. and I think England needs to follow the same lines.
Premier League clubs are required to have 8 home grown players in their 25 man squad. Although the definition of home grown is woolly, it does put a premium on the "value" of the decent English players.
