posted May 27, 2008

I'm all for it as I think the flood of foreigners is detrimental to the grass roots of English football. Blatters arguments though are seriously flawed when he states that in part it was wrong to have three clubs from the same countries fighting the semi finals of the Champions League.It was pure monetary greed that started letting runners up compete, then started allowing third and fourth place clubs in. Hell they ain't even runners up never mind champions. So don't start griping when the inevitable happens and you have one country final. I like Platinis argument too in his attempt to stop debt ridden clubs from entering Europe.

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posted May 30, 2008

Exactly what is illegal under Eurolaw? It's not illegal for any 22 men to kick a ball around a field and neither should it be. I hope the organisers of the Champions League (FIFA or whoever the small print says) will tell clubs that if they want to play for FIFA's trophy then they have to conform to FIFA's rules and restrict the numbers of foreign players they put out in it. That stance involves a freedom that deserves defending in the Eurocourts. It risks a boycott by the big clubs who might try to set up their own competition, but I hope Blatter will stand firm. I believe that most supporters of big clubs with many foreign players will defend their own club to outsiders, but privately admit unease about the present situation. Platini is right about club debt too, and it could be dealt with in the same way. Of course the change would also increase the pool of top players from which our national team is drawn, making a long overdue repeat of 1966 more likely.

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posted May 30, 2008

OK so am I missing something here... surely sport in general already violate this law on a regular basis... how can it be legal (according to EU law which says that EU citizens cannot be excluded from a job on nationality basis as free passage is ensured) for any EU country to have ANY national team in ANY sport? Surely if this law is properly enforced, then those national teams are illegal arent they? Whats next are the EU going to say that we MUST allow foreigners into our national teams as well???

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posted May 30, 2008

I'm all for it. How many talented kids aspire to play in the EPL but will never make it because managers will not field home-grown talent. Theres people who say that the people coming through are average at best. Utter rubbish.

I'll add that when British teams were in their heyday; 60's, 70's and 80's foreign players were rare and we did better in internationals.

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posted May 30, 2008

Totally agree with AntonfromLancs. FIFA will probably lose against the EU but there should be nothing preventing them from saying 'fine, have as many foreign players as you want but when you field a team in the champion's league, that team must have 6 domestic players on the field'.

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posted May 30, 2008

Outside the top four, football is actually in decline in the UK with fans not relating to teams and nobody turning up to overpriced matches. This needs to be addressed and this proposal starts to do that.
I normally think Blatter is a fool but in this instance he is right. However, I'm sure money will win the day.

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posted May 30, 2008

aye demi as it used to be 20 years ago when they could only play 4 foreigners in european games....the home nations did not count as foreigners and quite rightly so as tbh we are still classed as one nation as its a Britsh passport(which i dont agree with...FREEDDDOOMM!!! )

Blatter has done nothing i agree with so far but this is for sure a must in the game

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posted May 30, 2008

Im a bit confused...
The plan seems sensible...the game is insane these days. Arsenal pch what a joke

But..how will it help our national team? Surely if we have amazing youngsters who cant make it in the EPL, then they should go to Spain or Italy who have supposedly weaker leagues due to our league being full of their players?

Do you not see my point? Surely the reason why England are crap is because our players are crap...end of

?

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posted Feb 26, 2009

This rule will have the complete opposite effect on our national team.

Clubs will still scour the world looking for the best young players. They will then be encouraged to choose a nationality or a passport.

Then rather than a load of English kids to select from, the england manager will have a load of kids from all over the world with english passports to choose from.

It is already happening with many brazilians and africans plying their trade in eastern europe and the baltic states.

Blatter really needs to live in the real world and not brussels, sorry I mean switzerland.

paul

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posted Feb 27, 2009

How can anyone claim the EPL is the best league when most of its teams park the bus against the top 4 ? Boring boring boring..

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