Blatter's plans are rediculous and unfair
Friday, 30 May 08, 06:36 PM
Sepp Blatter has recently been perusing the idea of limiting the amount of foreign players in a team. His proposal is to create the complete opposite of a meritocracy, where the best rise to the top regardless of race, religion and country of origin. Blatter has always been a man who thinks of 50 Ideas a day, 51 of which are bad. Such as when he wanted to split the game into quarters just to appease the American market, or when he proposed that the women’s game should be played in underwear to attract more viewers and sponsorship.
The beautiful thing about football is that it is fair. An untalented singer can reach the top with a good agent, and untalented actress can become a multi millionaire simply because of her bra-size, and even a complete imbecile can become president of the United States of America with the right family connections.
Football is not like this. Football is just. The best players reach the top regardless of whether their skin colour, country of origin, family history, religion, hair colour or penis size. Some players may be slightly overrated, underrated, lucky or unlucky. Some are born in the right circumstances to make a quality player, but there are probably not many potential world player of the year winners playing in the lower leagues, and there are undoubtedly no players in the premiership that cannot be described as talented and no players in the top level of football in any country who have not been training their whole lives to reach that level. The extensive scouting networks of the top teams means that if you are good enough, you will sooner or later be noticed, and if you are bad enough, you will be found out. Even the players often lambasted as awful and overrated, such as Titus Bramble or Ade Akinbiye, were probably the best in their schools, and played the game for hours on end every day in their youth in order to make the top.
Football also gives people from the poorest countries in the world a chance to make a decent living for themselves, but Blatter’s plans will change all of this. Under Blatter’s plan players such as Didier Drogba and Kolo Toure would be left to make their livings in their own countries' leagues, a stage nowhere near big enough for their talents.
I was born in north London, grew up within walking distance of Highbury and have supported Arsenal all my life. Do I deserve to play for the club more than foreign players like Emanuelle Adebayor? No, because I have not the ability required.
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I can definitely see your point. If you have no interest whatsoever in your national team, and well, surprise surprise you're obviously an arsenal fan which means no real consequential English player to speak of, then you must be appalled by the whole notion. But there's something I find fascinating which should be further analyzed in my opinion. "Those fans" as you call them are all English. So I ask: Why on earth are English fans suddenly so lackadaisical towards their national team, when historically they've been the most fervent? Coincidence? Frustration? Surely the latter. England has been second rate for some time now. And it's become painfully obvious how English fans find themselves relegated to praying for club success, while real futbol powers strive for bigger glory. The champions league is a poor substitute for a World Cup, where real legends are made.
...unless of course, you're English.
These are all good points, I would say Daniel that I think that even though we have only one or two English players at the moment, Arsenal would be able to adapt to the new law without slipping down the table. Wenger would sign English players and bring in the likes of Mark Randall from the reserves. He has a great ability to turn ordinary players into great players. I support the English national team with all my heart, but England's problem right now is quite obviously not a lack of quality players (apart from up front). The foreigners at the moment provide competition to the home grown talent, and thus sort the best from the ordinary, and prevent average players from becoming superstars.
Arsenaltruth it was your article that inspired my own, I was gonna put a comment on your post but i wanted to say so much I wrote my own piece, so thanks for the inspiration of sorts
I would also say that this is not an Arsenal thing, it's just a more a political thing. I despise anything I think is unfair and creates an uneven playing field. I see this as an unfair trade barrier against players unlucky enough to be born in countries much poorer than ours anyway. This is the rich protecting their own, and preventing the poor from bettering their positions. It's socialism in reverse. I also think more English players should play abroad, meaning they'd be taking positions in teams away from their local players, thus also making room for new english players to come through in English clubs and meaning more English players are playing at the top level.
Let's be honest, England have been second rate from year dot. Even when they won the World Cup it was only because they had the advantage of playing on home soil and even then they needed a dodgy decision to win it.
I'm afraid England simply doesn't have a good record of developing young players. Part of this is down to the fact that English kids are too bone idol to dedicate themselves to the sport.
In other countries it's different. In Africa or South America it's to escape poverty , whereas Spain and Italy perhaps the climate is more suited to training all year round. In Holland, France and Germany they obviously have much much better footballing academies.
The FA in this country should be slung out. How dare they back these plans instead getting off there arse and creating a platform for the future. They only think short term because all they care about is their own jobs.
I think that's a little harsh, (look at the second German goal in '66 - blatant handball to control it before he scores!)
England didn't enter the first 3 world cups and if we did we might well have won - they had never lost at home to a foreign side and had we just sent along the Arsenal team at the time they may have been unstoppable. An England team featuring seven Arsenal players defeated world champs Italy in 1934.
The world cup has never been won by great footballing nations like Holland, Portugal and Spain and England have historically always been a strong team and have qualified for most world cups.
Plus you have to consider ther World Cup is ussually played in hot countries in the middle of summer - not really suited to English players such as Paul Scholes; Such players actually melt whenever they see the sun. Much more suited to the players from, say, Brazil.
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I agree with very much of what you say, still, I suspect that in the next 5, 10 or 15 years, English fans will be grateful due to the possibility of England fielding a decent national team because of a measure like this. Fantastic players like Drogba, and others from less affluent societies will always have a place in the top leagues. What this measure does is compel the executives to make smarter choices when it comes to acquiring foreign talent, and in the Premiership especially, there seems to be a strange sort of inferiority complex at the moment mixed with an exaggerated sycophantic attitude to anything non-British futbol wise. Not only is this conspicuous behaviour in the futbol environment regarding to players, but managers as well. Time will tell whether it was a wise move. We'll see.
Cheers.
You suspect? Should we ruin the technical level and entertainment value that foreign players bring on a suspicion that it "might" benefit English football in the future.
Football is in the entertainment business, why should I be deprived of watching entertainers? What about those fans who do not have the slightest interest in International football. Do I have to suffer the quality resident in watching my favourite football team because of the desire of others to create a good international team - something for which I have no interest?
Blatter is barking mad, and thank God that European law with throw his idiotic plans in the bin where they belong.