Time the F.A sorted this out

[drew]

The number of foreign player in the PL (and the Championship for that matter) is not the cause of the problem but simply the symptoms.

Some other countries create enough good players that they don't need to import better foreign ones.

Get rid of all foreign players from the PL and you won't have a better England team but you will have a worse standard of football in the PL, this will end up making things worse.

We don't have the same football culture as some countries, by that I mean that kids here have arguably more varied interests other than football - Rugby, Hockey, etc. and music, and other non-sports related interests as well as more focus on academia etc. - all of which are good things but it does "reduce" the pool of those kids interested in football. Go to many countries and football is all they do, they don't necessarily have the resources/interests in things other than football.

The problem is what we do (or don't do) with the kids that ARE into football and that starts at school. Too many (and this has been said many times before) kids that are taught to hoof the ball to the bigger kids and see who can kick the ball the hardest or who is best at dribbling around 8 players and scoring a wonder goal.

If the F.A. really want to make a proper difference they need to address this - no full sized pitches until late school age, focus on skill/teamplay/passing/technique rather than power, stop overzealous parents at games giving negative advice/shouting etc. More investments in proper coaches (Germany/Spain have something like TEN times as many fully qualified coaches as England does), more youth academies teaching the kids the better way to play football and so on.

The issue is the same with English clubs as well as the national team, people (well, "fans") seem to want to attack all the symptoms rather than the causes, many mistake the latter for the former too.

It's not all bad though, there are some impressive young English players in the game currently (Sterling, Barkley, Lallana etc.), just not enough of them.

Nice rant but are you aware of the way kids are playing football now? Do you honestly believe that kids of 9 and 10 are playing on full size pitches. Look at the FA website and read up about it. Changes have been made but will not affect the current crop of professional footballers. It will need to filter through as the kids of today grow up.

 

[Giraffe]

You know what, I am pretty pleased with England's progress. Yes we haven't won anything, but we have attack-minded youngsters that are trying to play the right way. The only shame is that we have an aging and rubbish defence.

I agree with this, and we will be stronger in four years time as a result.

However I also agree with the sentiment of the thread starter. Too many potential English internationals are plying their trade at a lower level than they used to and not getting the opportunities they once would because of the amount of foreign players in the league.

 

[beorhthelm]

It is not possible under current law to restrict the employment of any EU national

it is possible, they already do it, and do it more in Germany and i believe Spain too.

 

[DavidinSouthampton]

The FA will not do a thing. Just like they did not do a thing after the abject rubbish which was served up at the last Euros, and SA, and the Euros before that, and Germany 2006 etc etc. The English set up is rotten to the core and all the time supporters lap up Sky TV and continue this blind support for the national team and all the while clubs pay utterly ridiculous amounts of money to very very average players nothing will change.

I've been saying this for 12 years now.

I presume, if one believes what one reads in the papers, that Wayne Rooney is on considerably more money than Luis Suarez. I can't help thinking that was a lot of Manure's problems last season, that everyone else in the club could well have resented the level at which he is allegedly paid.

 

[Perfidious Albion]

A lot of sense in this thread... We all agree that it went pear shaped when sky brought in the cash for Prem League. No easy solution but some thoughts:

A) A British rather than English team -assuming Scotland do not depart
B) Strict enforcement of FFP rules to curb inflated salaries
C) As Southwick Seagull said, let the best play abroad & get international experience every week

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

I agree with this, and we will be stronger in four years time as a result.

However I also agree with the sentiment of the thread starter. Too many potential English internationals are plying their trade at a lower level than they used to and not getting the opportunities they once would because of the amount of foreign players in the league.

Clubs are over charged for English players, 25 million for Lallana or Christian Eriksen for 11, no wonder they go overseas.

 

[Silverhatch]

Nice rant but are you aware of the way kids are playing football now? Do you honestly believe that kids of 9 and 10 are playing on full size pitches. Look at the FA website and read up about it. Changes have been made but will not affect the current crop of professional footballers. It will need to filter through as the kids of today grow up.

This is true. There are changes at grass roots. However, young children are still being taught by Level 1 dads and mums who cannot help but get drawn into competitive coaching techniques and team selections. Yet, the really talented kids are usually identified and put up for trials at local centres of excellence. The real problem at the elite level is that clubs talent hoard. Chelsea being a particularly bad example. If the FA stop buggering about with B-Leagues and set out to develop another 6/12000 elite coaches for distribution throughout the game - all the way down to grass roots, then we may see some real progress.

 

[nwgull]

it is possible, they already do it, and do it more in Germany and i believe Spain too.

How do they implement this? I'm fairly sure that a rule that prevented a Spanish player being employed by an English club would not be workable legally.

 

[wehatepalace]

I wouldn't mind betting that in ten years time, half the national side will be picked from 2nd tier clubs.

 

[Silkster365]

It is not possible under current law to restrict the employment of any EU national. There are restrictions on non-EU players in that they usually need to be international class to get a work permit; however this is easy to get around by finding a Portuguese or Spanish granny and qualifying for an EU passport - this is how Ulloa can play for us.

Granted. Teams can employ 50 foreign players if they want, but why not only allow 3 to play in the match day squad

 

[Norman Potting]

It will all improve when the Premier League, F.A. and Football League settle their differences and work together for the good of the game as a whole at all levels. About the same time as I become Pope Norman 1st and flying pig racing takes over as the national sport.

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

A lot of sense in this thread... We all agree that it went pear shaped when sky brought in the cash for Prem League. No easy solution but some thoughts:

A) A British rather than English team -assuming Scotland do not depart
B) Strict enforcement of FFP rules to curb inflated salaries
C) As Southwick Seagull said, let the best play abroad & get international experience every week

Whilst I don't completely disagree, We have missed two tournament's in the 21 years the Premiership has been around, and one of them was in 94 when I believe we still had a restriction on the number of over seas players in the league.

 

[DJ Leon]

We failed to even qualify for a WC when nearly all the players in the top division were British. Go figure.

 

[beorhthelm]

How do they implement this? I'm fairly sure that a rule that prevented a Spanish player being employed by an English club would not be workable legally.

they impose quotas on the number of local players in the side. here we do the same with minimum "home grown" players (might even be a Champiosn League rule too), but theres an implicit work around with how long a player has been in the country allows them to qualify. only difference as far as i can tell is the Germans and Spanish dont fill their acedemies with foriegn kids, while ours do. (there in lies the real problem). a sporting organisation restricting nationals in a team is not a company preventing a EU worker from employment. first the rule comes from outside the company and secondly they can still employ as many spanish as they like, just only field a certain number.

 

[Curious Orange]

You know what, I am pretty pleased with England's progress. Yes we haven't won anything, but we have attack-minded youngsters that are trying to play the right way. The only shame is that we have an aging and rubbish defence.

I kind of agree with that, I've actually rather enjoyed watching England play in this World Cup. If we actually had any world class players we could be dangerous playing like that.

 

[perth seagull]

Every time England are eliminated from a tournament this subject gets brought up. Yet in the 1970s when there were very few non-British players in the league, England failed to qualify for two consecutive World Cups. in the 1980s, England weren't that much better than England in the 2000's. I'm not sure if restricting foreign players in the Premier League would make a great deal of difference.

 

[nwgull]

Granted. Teams can employ 50 foreign players if they want, but why not only allow 3 to play in the match day squad

They used to do this for the Champions League, up until about 1994, but then realised that it wasn't legal.

The 'home grown' thing works because it doesn't discriminate on the grounds of nationality. Doesn't make a massive difference though as most English clubs have U21 squads that are full of overseas players.

 

[El Presidente]

Number of UEFA qualified coaches per registered players

Spain 1 per 17
Italy 1 per 48
France 1 per 96
Germany 1 per 150

England 1 per 812

Nuff said?

The OP is talking nonsense.

 

[father_and_son]

With another poor England display is it time for the F.A to restrict the number of overseas players flooding our game?

How?

The only way it can happen (realistically) is for us to withdraw from the EU!

We just do not have the negotiating power for convince the EU to offer an exclusion for the English FA to avoid the consequences of the EU Directive on free movement of labour.

 

[Westdene Seagull]

Isn't the new academy system meant to be an answer to this ? If so we probably need to be a little more patient to see if it helps.

Of course we could take up Greg Dyke's idea ...... thought not.