Blowing up Europe's Top Teams
According to news reports, FIFA and an international players' union on Thursday "signed a 'memorandum of understanding,' [proposing] the implementation of a six plus five system, whereby six members of a side must be eligible to play for the club's national association."
The ink was barely dry on the memorandum when Arsene Wenger, Arsenal's manager, complained: "'It is not to protect the national identity, it is to protect the national teams, their competitions, and their incomes,' said the Arsenal manager.
'Football bodies have to care about the level of the game - the level of the game does not mean protect mediocrity.'
When Arsenal reached the Champions League final last season, they only had two Englishmen in their starting XI - Sol Campbell and Ashley Cole. Both have now left the club.
Defender Justin Hoyte is likely to be the solitary Englishman in the side when the Gunners line up to face West Ham on Sunday."
Not to single out Arsenal -- other teams in the EPL, notably Chelsea and ManU, as well as top teams in the other European leagues, such as Barcelona and Real Madrid in Spain, may be forced to alter substantially their rosters to comply with this rule if it it is adopted as official policy.
What to think about it? On the one hand, it would open up opportunities to a country's nationals to get an opportunity to play in their country's top leagues. It also might level the playing field among clubs in first divisions by limiting the number of internationals and spreading the talent around. It also could lead to a reduction in salary among some of the top internationals as fewer slots would be available on the super rich teams, while raising it for the locals. And it could have a positive effect on a country's National team: more players would have the chance to develop their skills in the top league. The Italian league may offer an example: the winning side in the 2006 all played for the Serie A.
On the other hand, it could affect the quality of play in some of the top leagues, because the teams top heavy with internationals would have to dump some of their players and replace them with locals who would not be as good.
So what do you think?
2 comments:
the 6 plus 5 rule would only be toward the 16 players on the roster for gameday... not necessarily on the field at once... But Chelsea and Man U for example would be fine - A. Cole, J. Cole, Lamps, Terry, W. Bridge, SWP are all listed on their roster already... On one side it could spread the internationals around but it would only make one team a consolidated national team... Chelsea could just go after Owen or Hargreves...
Its hard to say that FIFA should force teams into this style just to prevent a national side's style to diminish. It is after all a business
my guess is that this won't hold up as it flies in the face of EU labor laws which are intended to guarantee mobility across the EU. Perhaps they could lump all euros into one group and africans, americans (north and south) and others into another group, but i can't see that working.
also can't believe that the players' unions signed onto this. this will really screw over the non europeans and the players from euro countries with second tier leagues.
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