I know we already have a thread going on the proposed new structure of the Football League but when I thought about it surely the simplest answer is to limit the number of non-British players an all divisions. For many years I have had issues with specific teams fielding a squad made up of entirely overseas players. How on earth can the governing bodies of the sport not understand the problems they have allowed to build up leading to this supposed critical point in the sports history. Surely foreign ownership, many of whom have clearly misrepresented themselves under the supposed rules governing suitability and clearly misreading the FFP rules to suit their own selfish accounting system, and the upsurge in more overseas players year after year are key issues that need to be addressed before the entire structure of the pyramid system is destroyed forever. The future of the grassroots are under serious threat with these proposed changes and being at my cynical best I would hazard a guess that it is not intended to benefit anyone other than the elite clubs. How often do you hear the likes of the Glazers or Abramovich say they believe that there should be involvement and financial help offered by the top clubs to support the network of clubs out there that live on the edge of survival each and every day? The clear answer is NEVER! Greed and glory are the orders of the day in our preferred sport and if we sit idly by and do, and say, nothing then it will become a "fete accompli" before you can say anything constructive or sensible to try and keep our past heritage long in to the future. Surely it is time for someone to send these interlopers off to pastures new, and separate, where they can play their own game(s) against themselves and let the rest of the "real" league play with their own satisfactory version of the game.
Football can only be significantly altered by governemnt intervention. That will go against the free market ideals of all three parties. It is no good looking at the FA / EPL and expecting change. The EPL was created at the bequest of six clubs, SIX. Its modus operandi is to self serve. Change has to come from lower down the leagues. Clubs growing some, saying no and re-defining what football should be about. All well and good whining about money when BCFC operated 140% past their income, have voted to increase parachute payments for failure and supported the unjust EPPP. Bristol City are part of the malaise that undermines development of homegrown players. The EPPP is not for the greater good. It helps to undermine clubs without owners who have massive wealth right through the pyramid. The EPL is now foreign owned, its CEO looks at the product as being a success. No change required. Limit foreign players? Meanwhile last season City played XI's without one local player. Too many Bristol City fans would support an XI of bought in Camels if it gets their results. Change starts from within.
The days of local players may return due to how much it costs to run football clubs They are already considering banning foreign players from the Championship, which is a step in the right direction. Cheap(er) foreign imports over the past 30 years or more have badly affected national progress in lots of sports other than football, and when we have made progress the likes of the FA would much rather have an over hyped celebrity selling shirts than a young and hungry next generation player. It's been cringe worthy..........
Britain excels in may sports. Look at the Olympics - A victory for long term strategy. The UK World beaters, dominant in boxing, cycling and rowing. All planned. Foreign clubs produce their own talent v buying imports who are more expensive. Money fuels short termism in football.
There are games that Arsenal start without anyone that is English, let alone local- Do the fans care- There is only one thing that the fans care about and that is the result. If it can then be done with attractive football, then so much the better. Whilst, (and if I had my own way I would,)EEC free movement of employment as far as I am aware means that we cant. If a team is made up of EEC and non English players, there is little that can be done, not even quotas. Scottish football, in my opinion, has suffered even more greatly than the English game. Years ago, Scotland had players that would die in a Blue shirt.I think of the likes of Billy Bremner, Don Masson, Joe Jordan, John Greig, Jimmy Johnstone, Kenny Dalgleish and managed by the great Jock Stein. Yes, several played in England, but they still gave England a damn good game. Today, their 2nd best team is managed by somebody that we showed the door to.Their league is a bit of an embarrassment and any half decent Scots cant get a game as the best teams are full of imports. Someone once asked why the Kenyans are such great runners. Its not so much that they are, its because there are so many of them that work hard and want success, we only see the very best and the elite ones. For a lot of them, it is a way out of poverty and to help their families. -Perhaps football is not hungry enough.
'I'm in favour of quota's - the problem is going to be EU law' The bloody EU - I listened to Wedgie and Enoch in '74. Pity the rest didn't.
The EPL is an international league. The owners are foreign, the players are foreign .. The Premier league is not there to produce talent or feed the national team. Six clubs created it to keep tv's money for themselves. Other leagues elsewhere have had quotas on non EU players. Teams in foreign countries can exist and compete v richer sides via regional recruitment. Spain has a national development model known as the fidelity concept which successfully creates their own players of a high standard that play throughout the leagues. The % of foreign players in Spain is far lower than England. There is much which can be done to alter things here. A few % of tv's lucre would pay for a national network of coaches that would surpass Germanys, the Netherlands and Spain. Closer to home £160 [approx] pays for coaching twice a week for kid for six months at football development centres for kids. David James wage for a month would pay enough coaches to coach hundreds of kids a week for a couple of years. Change can start at lower levels using developmnet models used abroad. Our kids do work just as hard as those abroad given the opportuinity, increase the coaching, increase the talent pool, increase the odds of diamonds appearing. Change requires focus instead of losing forty million spent on not very good mercaneries. Long distance running was my second sport. The Kenyans! Genetics [ectomorphs] x training at 7000 feet x positive role models x work ethic = success. Most of their best runners come from a small region around the Rift valley not the entire nation.
Now you've really got me going. Every time I return to the UK I see a nation that has almost given up and I'm afraid football is going down the same drainpipe and when I hear that "we can't do that because the EU won't let us" I just want to scream out loud. Look around the continent of Europe and tell me all the other members are falling over at every nuance dictated by Brussels and I think you will find that they have more common sense when it comes down to us or them. For some reason he British government seems to want to stick totally to what other people tell them they can, or cannot, do because it wouldn't be cricket any other way. I listen to the same comments during my winter stay in the Canary Islands but I never see or hear that anybody is prepared to do anything to stop the rot which unfortunately is so deep in to the system now that I truly believe it cannot be eradicated without serious social issues coming out on to the streets. Some politicians of my youth should have been listened to despite their apparent over zealousness and perhaps the country of my birth would not be in the total mess that I see today. Thanks reddprint for the opening to vent my concerns and to think the thread started on football -lol. Have a nice summer one and all
Especially that latter. Turns out we were right all along, but you didn't have to be a rocket scientist to work it out, even at the time
Only EPL clubs back which tells us that their money has bribed the FA into imposing unjust effects on lower clubs and their loyal fans. It is all due to their faults that we need to look into ways to merge talent into the highest level. They should be forced to play Brits and listen to the majority. Hopefully the fact that 75% of the football league needs to agree with a proposal for it to be past is on our side.
Simplest thing to do is run clubs like Southampton and I would include City in that. Very rich clubs can still have their big stars.
I'm Ok with that idea Red Alert but doesn't it still tell certain teams that they are better than the rest and deserve better deals?
Certain clubs are already past redemption. Today Man City had one English player but according to Alan Hansen they are a credit to the Premier league and Robbie Savage thinks they need another four quality players for the starting eleven for europe.
