Are there too many foreign players in the Premier League?

[Dave]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/6975955.stm

 

English football under threat

 

By Matt Slater

 

England's chances of football success are in jeopardy, according to the man responsible for producing the next generation of talent.

 

Sir Trevor Brooking told BBC1's Inside Sport the rising number of foreign players in the top flight has led to a lack of depth in key areas for England.

 

The FA's director of development warned: "(The national team) has to be under threat - the numbers show that.

 

"I don't think you can underestimate it. It's a major concern."

 

Brooking was speaking after a summer of record transfer spending by English clubs - much of it abroad - and before two must-win Euro 2008 qualifiers for Steve McClaren's under-fire England team.

 

Research by BBC Sport has revealed the extent of the challenges currently facing the national team as the pool of talent available to the manager decreases.

 

# 76% of the starting XIs that played on the first weekend of the first Premier League season in 1992 were English, only 37% were English on the first weekend of this season

# Only 10% (23 players) of the starting XIs in 1992 were from outside the UK, this season that number had increased to 56% (123)

# Non-English players have scored 69% of Premier League goals so far this season - they have even scored two of the three own goals

# Of the 118 goals scored so far, only nine have been scored by seven English strikers

# According to the latest Deloitte figures for disclosed transfer fees, spending by Premier League clubs rose from £333m in 2006 to £531m in 2007

# Half of that went to non-English clubs

 

Brooking is under no doubt that the growing number of foreign players in the Premier League is depriving domestic talent of first-team football and that is having a detrimental effect on England's chances of challenging at major tournaments.

 

"Last year about 40% of starting XIs in the Premier League were English," the 58-year-old England and West Ham legend said.

 

"And with all the buying that has gone on over the summer that will probably fall to under a third. Will there be first-team opportunities for some of our youngsters between 17 and 21?

 

"If you look at Italy when they won the last World Cup, I think they had over 70% of their league made up of domestic players. Spain, France, Holland, they're all up there too. Germany aren't much better than us but we're the lowest.

 

"The more that goes down, and the pool of choice reduces, we must come under pressure. In 10 years' time you don't want us just being pleased to qualify for tournaments."

 

How England's top flight compares with other leading leagues

 

Brooking, who was speaking at an FA-backed coaching day in Romford for five to 11-year-olds, was particularly concerned about the dearth of attacking options open to McClaren for Saturday's game against Israel and next Wednesday's crucial encounter with Russia.

 

With inspirational forward Wayne Rooney and midfield goal threats David Beckham and Frank Lampard injured - and Peter Crouch suspended for the Israel game - England have been forced to call up Emile Heskey and Ashley Young to bolster a strike force that can hardly be called prolific.

 

The much-maligned Heskey has at least scored this season - a claim that cannot be made by fellow England forwards Jermain Defoe, Andrew Johnson, Alan Smith or Young. And only Michael Owen, who has just returned from a year out injured, can boast of a goal this season and an international pedigree.

 

"We have nowhere near the depth we should have and that will be an issue as soon as you pick up injuries," said Brooking, who made 47 appearances in England's midfield during a distinguished career.

 

"We have that now in attack with the senior squad and we're struggling to find a replacement."

 

But as well as highlighting the threat to England's hopes of success posed by the diminishing number of players to select from in the Premier League, Brooking acknowledged the quality of English players had to improve too.

 

"Creating and scoring goals will be the big challenge for the English game and that will not improve unless we focus on developing our players better," he said.

 

"Injuries, form and combinations play a big part but you would like to go to any tournament with a chance. OK, it's frustrating when you don't win but let's stay in the melting pot.

 

"We've got a good nucleus now - our squad in last year's World Cup was one of the youngest - so they should stay together for the next five years or so. But after that, is there enough coming through?"

 

I know many would rather a tramp clutching a 1997 football sticker of an ex-Newcastle player won a tiddlywinks contest in Morocco than England won the World Cup, but your thoughts?

[gray]

aye bring back the foreigner rule

[Yorkie]

Not yet i don't think...

[Northern Monkey]

i'm happy enough with it.

[GG]

There should be a limit set that you have to have a player brought through the academy in the 1st XI with 3 in the squad, with at least 7 UK players in the 16 man squad.

[Dave]

I'm undecided. The introduction of foreign players has undoubtedly increased the quality of the league, and has allowed smaller clubs to pick up good players for small fees. I don't really like entire teams of foreigners taking the field though. Not sure why, I'd just prefer to see some players from the British Isles in there, if they are good enough.

[Guest Sam]

I'd rather have an exciting Premier League to watch week in, week out, then watch a slightly stronger England team flop out of the world cup every 4 years.

 

The fact is, getting top England players is not an issue, England have one of the (if not the) strongest squad in the world. The problem is that no one cares about international football anymore (including the players) and that we havent had a decent England manager since Bobby.

[Leazes1986]

Bit of both i think. If the English players were good enough then surely they would be pushing for a first team place anyway, regardless of the foreigners. There has been a ridiculous amount of money wasted on average foreigners coming over here (we are more guilty that most for this). I seen that yesterday the foreigners were getting blamed for us for not having enough quality English strikers. Well if the young English strikers coming through were so good then they would be playing regularly in the Premiership now and scoring goals. Its not really that theres too many foreigners, its we're not producing the youngsters.

[dustynrg]

Leave it as it is - I think more and more Newcastle fans really couldn't care much about England anyway. If having more foreigners means the national team goes down the pan then so be it, supply and demand and all that.

 

Wouldn't keeping places open for English players be positive discrimination? Isn't that against the law?

[indi]

I've said it before and I'll say it again, the only problem is that English players are too fucking lazy or simply too dumb to do what everyone else does and go and play abroad. If they did it would vastly improve their game and subsequently it would also raise the level of the England team. However, it's the old British problem of us thinking "why the fuck should I do anything, I can't be arsed to learn a different language or go and find work in another country." In the past we could get away with it because we owned half the world and forced them to speak our language (not to mention nicking all their stuff), but now we need to change our attitude or we're fucked!! Not just in football, but in society as a whole. People should stop moaning about it and get off their lazy arses and do something for themselves, changing the rules to "protect" English football is a shit idea and it won't work, it never has and never will.

[Guest Sniffer]

I have np problem with class foreigners. I do have a problem with shite like amdy faye playing here. And we should know all about that because we've certainly signed our share of them.

 

Don't other countries like Italy and Spain have a limit on the number of foreigners?

[SUPERTOON]

I said no

 

there probably is but for me it comes down to do you want a good england team or good prem

 

 

For me Newcastle Utd and the prem over england

[Dave]

I said no

 

there probably is but for me it comes down to do you want a good england team or good prem

 

 

For me Newcastle Utd and the prem over england

 

Why is it impossible to have both? Everyone knows that most fans would choose their club over England, hence my sarcastic OP.

[Colos Short and Curlies]

I have np problem with class foreigners. I do have a problem with s**** like amdy faye playing here. And we should know all about that because we've certainly signed our share of them.

 

Don't other countries like Italy and Spain have a limit on the number of foreigners?

 

You can only limit non-EU, which I believe Spain certainly does (though willing to be corrected).

 

Where it falls down is the non-EU work-permit issue. Its too easy to get around the criteria which is laid down for a reason - 75% of national games in the past 4 years.

 

Take Yakubu, he failed the test but was allowed due to 'reputation'. Big deal, don't make the quota you don't get the permit

[indi]

I have np problem with class foreigners. I do have a problem with shite like amdy faye playing here. And we should know all about that because we've certainly signed our share of them.

 

Don't other countries like Italy and Spain have a limit on the number of foreigners?

 

Pretty sure it's against EU law to restrict the number of EU nationals in a team. I guess you could restrict the non-EU players, but even then a whole load of countries have freedom of employment/trade agreements with the EU, therefore you'd probably only see the restriction apply to a couple of places, making it pretty ineffectual.

 

Further to what I've said before, look at the really top-class teams in world football, where do the majority of their players play? Not in their own countries, I'll bet. The real problem with the England team is the exact opposite of what Trevor Brooking thinks it is, it's the fact that only one player (that I can think of anyway), David Beckham, plays abroad. Most of them have no experience of anything other than British football and that's a big disadvantage when it comes to winning against sides who play completely differently to that.

 

Am I the only one who thinks this is blatantly obvious?

 

Always thought Brooking was a bit thick anyway.

[Northern Monkey]

Leave it as it is - I think more and more Newcastle fans really couldn't care much about England anyway[./b]. If having more foreigners means the national team goes down the pan then so be it, supply and demand and all that.

 

Wouldn't keeping places open for English players be positive discrimination? Isn't that against the law?

 

I hope you're wrong there, i really do.

 

"I'd rather Newcastle won the toss than England won the world cup" = cretins.

[Colos Short and Curlies]

Leave it as it is - I think more and more Newcastle fans really couldn't care much about England anyway[./b]. If having more foreigners means the national team goes down the pan then so be it, supply and demand and all that.

 

Wouldn't keeping places open for English players be positive discrimination? Isn't that against the law?

 

I hope you're wrong there, i really do.

 

"I'd rather Newcastle won the toss than England won the world cup" = cretins.

 

Newcastle win the FA Cup or European Cup or England win the World Cup?

 

Toon all the way I'm afraid

 

(plus England games bore me now, so predictable)

[TêteDeMaure]

I can't imagine the premiership without them, we'd be worse off.

 

I say we haven't got enough. If English players aren't good enough, tough shit on them.

[johnnypd]

out of the 14 players who featured for Italy in the world cup final, only two had experience of playing outside of Italy, Materrazzi and Gattusso, and they were only abroad for short spells very early in their career at smaller clubs. england had beckham and hargreaves who had both spent recent time at big continental clubs.

 

regardless, the nations who prioritise their domestic league, spain, italy, england, germany, will always have less players playing abroad. brazil, argentina and france flog off every last player they have, and the domestic leagues are massively weakened as a result. so i don't think that is the route to go down. i'd like a few more players to move abroad but i wouldn't want an almost total emptying of british talent overseas, as happens in most other countires.  the champion's league and to a lesser extent the uefa cup are almost as important when it comes to exposure to foreign football, though that is quite different to national level football.

[Kev]

No

we have foreign players that have more quality than the english players

other clubs is the same, except the lampards etc... as he is better than most foreign midfielders

[Northern Monkey]

Leave it as it is - I think more and more Newcastle fans really couldn't care much about England anyway[./b]. If having more foreigners means the national team goes down the pan then so be it, supply and demand and all that.

 

Wouldn't keeping places open for English players be positive discrimination? Isn't that against the law?

 

I hope you're wrong there, i really do.

 

"I'd rather Newcastle won the toss than England won the world cup" = cretins.

 

Newcastle win the FA Cup or European Cup or England win the World Cup?

 

Toon all the way I'm afraid

 

(plus England games bore me now, so predictable)

 

[sigh]

[Newcastle Fan]

I think there is a fair balance between Forgien players and English players in most EPL clubs, but its clubs like Arsenal and Chelsea that cross the line with the number of forgien players in their squad.

[Colos Short and Curlies]

Leave it as it is - I think more and more Newcastle fans really couldn't care much about England anyway[./b]. If having more foreigners means the national team goes down the pan then so be it, supply and demand and all that.

 

Wouldn't keeping places open for English players be positive discrimination? Isn't that against the law?

 

I hope you're wrong there, i really do.

 

"I'd rather Newcastle won the toss than England won the world cup" = cretins.

 

Newcastle win the FA Cup or European Cup or England win the World Cup?

 

Toon all the way I'm afraid

 

(plus England games bore me now, so predictable)

 

[sigh]

 

Why the sigh?

 

The toon takes up a lot more of my life than the England team, so why shouldn't I prefer to see Newcastle win a cup than England?

[Gash]

You probably know my answer, but clubs NEED value for money

 

Martins and Bent, i don't think there's anything between them, if not the former being the better!!!!

 

 

its a joke the inflation and i for one would be happy to have an English'less team to not be paying extortionate money!

 

 

[STM]

I'm infuriated by this.

 

To suggest that the England national team's shitness since McClaren took over is to do with the number foreign players in our league is ridiculas. The england national team has a plethora of talent and almost matches any team on the national stage in terms of quality and depth of quality.

 

The reason that england aren't successfull is because we hire poor managers and we hire these managers because they are english. Foreign managers are lightyears ahead of ours.