6+5 poses more questions than answers
Saturday, 27 June 09, 01:47 PM · Comments(4)
By Michael Sinnerton
Is FIFA's 6+5 rule beginning to take effect even before it's formal acceptance?
The objective for those who don't know is to have an incremental implementation at the beginning of the 2010/11 season to give clubs time to adjust their teams. Once the ruling is in place clubs must field 6 players eligible to play for the national team of the country of the club. In 10/11 teams must have a 4+7 system, in 11/12 a 5+6 system and then a 6+5 system from 2012/13 onwards.
Purchases like Glen Johnson at Liverpool, whilst obviously made mainly for footballing reasons, are being looked at more and more by managers as a long-term solution to the 6+5 ‘problem'. It's perhaps the reason why Benitez was willing to ‘overpay' and I know it is something he has been conscious of in the past. It may also be the reasons for seemingly strange transfers like Ross Turnbull to Chelsea and could be a factor if Alex Ferguson decides to only sign one striker to replace Carlos Tevez, thereby allowing Danny Welbeck more playing time.
The rule has been described as illegal by the EU and was rejected by the European Parliament but the Institute for European Affairs found that the rule "can be implemented in line with Community law." Assuming the ruling does come into being, the England team should logically benefit through having a greater number of players to choose from but on the downside may well push the prices of English players up in the meantime.
Would you like your club to sign more English players anyway? Or are you worried that the rule will promote on the basis of nationality rather than quality? I worry that it could mean a decrease in quality as youngsters are over promoted, although in the long-term things should even themselves out. Also what will the rule mean for the hundreds of Brazilians who move to Europe every year?
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4 Comments · Add yours
it's not a good news for brazilians.
i see the 6+5 lowering the quality in england, but not a whole lot elsewhere. i don't see how an influx of english players from reserve teams or the championship will improve the quality of the league or the national team.
There are two things I am thinking here:
1. If all 20 premiership clubs have to field 6 eligible players, that implies 120 senior england players. I don't know what the size of the england squad is right now, but do they really have up to 100 senior players?
2.Been forced to have at least 6 england players on the pitch would mean buying maybe 9-10 england players in case of injuries and such things. And what if the non-english player you have is performing better than the english one? Are you still forced to field the english one just to make up the numbers?
I think this idea needs to be properly thought out first.
I agree with all the comments posted here. (although to answer SNO's 1st point - they don't have to be senior england players, just English. So as a poor example, I would be eligible to play for Chelsea under the new ruling because I'm english and I have never represented another national team.) They confirm what this is - a poorly constructed proposal that will ultimately do nothing to improve football.
Surely the real problem in football today is money not nationality? All that will happen when this is introduced is that the richest clubs will be even more deceitful and aggressive in their current attempts to asset-strip smaller clubs. The big 4/5/6 clubs will look to stockpile english players. The problem is that why would a small club sell a good english player when they are severely limited in what they are legally allowed to buy with the money? Therefore big clubs will take a different route - poaching youth players from academies. This will further undermine the often criticised academy system and the whole sport will spiral out of control.
Simple solution? wage cap. If big stars are thinking twice about joining english clubs due to the current tax hikes, imagine if there was a wage cap. Now clubs would be forced to develop players rather than buy. Also, there would be less of an incentive for a young english player to join a rich club because they wouldn't gain a massive financial advantage. Result? Level playing field. Everyone wins. Chance of happening? zero.