Germany 06: One year On

[The College Dropout]

The Ivory Coast was one of the highlights of the tournament for me... playing constant attacking football.

 

Enjoy it while it lasts then.

 

It wouldn't happen if your idea about the players coming from their national leagues were actualised. Stupid idea...hmmm....Ghana or the Premiership??? Tough choice there. Would only result in more African born and raised Frenchmen.

[Delima]

1. Germany prove to be an extremely, extremely good host.

 

2. English fans finally part way with their hooliganisms, and win over many hearts with their singings and funs.

 

3. Zidane's headbutt.

 

4. Germany yet again do well in a major tournament despite the negativity surrounding them before the tournament.

 

5. Argentina's sensational goal.

 

6. Dissapointment of England.

[Fugazi]

I think you have to go back to the Euros in 2000 for a really good quality International Tournament (well, that England have been in).

 

Agreed

 

The Euro2000 final is on ESPN Classic at the moment.

[LooneyToonArmy]

 

2. English fans finally part way with their hooliganisms, and win over many hearts with their singings and funs.

 

 

don't know about that, there was that minor incident with the  German fans in Stuttgart (400 of ours arrested and banned) with a few other run ins

 

 

[nfrederi]

6: Make it law for each national team to contain at least 7 players in their squads who play their football in their own country to add unique to them and varied styles to teams.

 

That's a sh*t idea, sorry. How the hell would the likes of the Asian & African teams ever be able to compete?

 

Agreed, Ireland would be f***** for one.

 

Not fair if a team has no worthwhile national league that they should be forced to bring lesser players. This would all just play into the hands of the big nations, which goes against what you're saying about trying to stop the superpowers always winning.

 

Short-term yes, but long-term it may actually force nations to start developing their own game from the bottom up, their leagues and for homegrown players to play their football "at home". The globalisation of the sport is ruining the game for smaller nations whose best players as soon as they show even a modicum of talent are leaving to play in other countries which has a massive and underestimated negative effect on their own footballing culture. The world game is very much like our own Premiership, dominated by the big leagues with all the talent floating at the top, the rest becoming bottom feeders fighting over the scraps.

 

As a result competition is almost non existent.

 

The biggest example of this is Scotland, for years their best players have played in England which helped their national team no end, true, however every fabric of Scottish football with every departure slowly but surely loosened, thus wrecking their own competitions to such an extent it has affected player development to the point where the national team manager is checking out the family tree of players like Nigel Quashie whose roots are Ghanaian, just to put a competitive team together.

 

Competitions like the World Cup were designed so players could represent their country and the game in their country, to promote the game in their own country, over the years that has changed however. Most of the French football team are not representing their own game, but ones in England, Spain, Italy etc. for example.

 

Perhaps forcing such a policy would be the wrong way to go... OK, make it a voluntary option then and reward those that sign up with funding to help the game in THEIR OWN country, to improve facilities and such.

 

The game is in danger of falling in on itself as the foundations are very weak and the global sport has a duty to first protect the interests of every nation and not itself, or rather the bigger nations, and that isn't happening. The result. Go to any country outside of the big leagues and the standard of football is appalling.

 

The Dutch who produce fantastic players are going to become the next Scotland, mark my words. Years of losing their better players will catch up with them and bite them on the arse big time, regardless of how successful they are at producing players.

 

Ironically all this will impact nations most at international level, as Scotland have found out.

 

In short in order to protect international interests, you have to first protect domestic ones as the two go hand in hand, if one suffers, so will the other.

 

Nations like Africa will never fulfil their potential because all their best players will leave to play outside of Africa. Short term their national teams will do well because their players are learning a new game and using that experience to good effect, but they aren't taking it back home with them for the next generation so ultimately their national teams will suffer.

 

Cameroon showed the way in 90 with their team of unknowns - but have taken a turn for the worse since as all their best players were snapped up by clubs from the big nations. It has happened to Nigeria too and will happen to the likes of Ghana, Ivory Coast et al.

 

Think the problem with Scotland has been the fact of too many poor Bosmans stifling home grown talent which has led to the inability to develop players who are good enough these days to compete in the premiership and at international level. May be an idea that for european competitions, league games etc to have a squad of players has to be registered similar to the 22 players per squad at international competitions but must include a proportion of players who are home grown ie developed in the country to which the club belongs.

[oldtype]

6: Make it law for each national team to contain at least 7 players in their squads who play their football in their own country to add unique to them and varied styles to teams.

 

That's a sh*t idea, sorry. How the hell would the likes of the Asian & African teams ever be able to compete?

 

Agreed, Ireland would be f***** for one.

 

Not fair if a team has no worthwhile national league that they should be forced to bring lesser players. This would all just play into the hands of the big nations, which goes against what you're saying about trying to stop the superpowers always winning.

 

Short-term yes, but long-term it may actually force nations to start developing their own game from the bottom up, their leagues and for homegrown players to play their football "at home". The globalisation of the sport is ruining the game for smaller nations whose best players as soon as they show even a modicum of talent are leaving to play in other countries which has a massive and underestimated negative effect on their own footballing culture. The world game is very much like our own Premiership, dominated by the big leagues with all the talent floating at the top, the rest becoming bottom feeders fighting over the scraps.

 

As a result competition is almost non existent.

 

The biggest example of this is Scotland, for years their best players have played in England which helped their national team no end, true, however every fabric of Scottish football with every departure slowly but surely loosened, thus wrecking their own competitions to such an extent it has affected player development to the point where the national team manager is checking out the family tree of players like Nigel Quashie whose roots are Ghanaian, just to put a competitive team together.

 

Competitions like the World Cup were designed so players could represent their country and the game in their country, to promote the game in their own country, over the years that has changed however. Most of the French football team are not representing their own game, but ones in England, Spain, Italy etc. for example.

 

Perhaps forcing such a policy would be the wrong way to go... OK, make it a voluntary option then and reward those that sign up with funding to help the game in THEIR OWN country, to improve facilities and such.

 

The game is in danger of falling in on itself as the foundations are very weak and the global sport has a duty to first protect the interests of every nation and not itself, or rather the bigger nations, and that isn't happening. The result. Go to any country outside of the big leagues and the standard of football is appalling.

 

The Dutch who produce fantastic players are going to become the next Scotland, mark my words. Years of losing their better players will catch up with them and bite them on the arse big time, regardless of how successful they are at producing players.

 

Ironically all this will impact nations most at international level, as Scotland have found out.

 

In short in order to protect international interests, you have to first protect domestic ones as the two go hand in hand, if one suffers, so will the other.

 

Nations like Africa will never fulfil their potential because all their best players will leave to play outside of Africa. Short term their national teams will do well because their players are learning a new game and using that experience to good effect, but they aren't taking it back home with them for the next generation so ultimately their national teams will suffer.

 

Cameroon showed the way in 90 with their team of unknowns - but have taken a turn for the worse since as all their best players were snapped up by clubs from the big nations. It has happened to Nigeria too and will happen to the likes of Ghana, Ivory Coast et al.

 

Think the problem with Scotland has been the fact of too many poor Bosmans stifling home grown talent which has led to the inability to develop players who are good enough these days to compete in the premiership and at international level. May be an idea that for european competitions, league games etc to have a squad of players has to be registered similar to the 22 players per squad at international competitions but must include a proportion of players who are home grown ie developed in the country to which the club belongs.

 

HTT, I think your heart is in the right place but ultimately you just don't understand the realities of football outside of the European "core."

 

Fact: Asian and African leagues will not start to experience some sort of miraculous growth because FIFA compels local federations to develop their domestic competitons. How long did it take for England to develop its current set of institutions? A hundred years? More? Football in these regions has only really been taken seriously for a couple of decades now, and as a result many of these leagues don't even have the most basic things an English fan would take for granted. The Korean league (K-League) still does not have a working promotion/relegation system, or even a second division comprised of full-time players. Youth academies are nearly non-existant. Many first division clubs lack a consistent supporter base and have to be propped up by large corporations. Last season, the reigning champions averaged less than 5,000 in attendence, and a second division club refused promotion to the top flight because they didn't think it would be woth the expenses. All this from a country that sells out it's 65,000 seat ground for every single international friendly.

 

All of these problems exist not for lack of trying, but because setting up a functioning professional sports league takes time. A lot of time. It takes decades for fans to form strong bonds with their local club, possibly more for things like multi-tiered leagues to be agreed upon. Forcing countries to rely on domestic players would not magically solve all of these problems, it would simply make teams from the "periphery" unable to compete at all on the international level, thus killing a large amount of the interest for football in these countries.

 

There is no snap solution for development of football in Asian and Africa. It's going to take a lot of time and money, and even then, these leagues will probably never be on level with European ones, just like we can't realisitically expect Honduras or Botswana to ever be as prosperous as the US or the UK. Radical strategies run the risk of severe backlash and/or just killing any interest in football as a whole.

 

Granted, I think the idea might work out for places like Holland or Scotland, where already strong leagues are on the decline.

 

 

As for Germany 06...

 

Whatever happened to Maxi Rodriguez? I thought he'd be the next big thing after seeing him against Mexico.

 

[rocksammy]

would of been an interesting world cup if australia beat italy and given the same amount of kicks other teams got due to fucking dodgey refing  = ) diving pooftas

[wacko]

 

2. English fans finally part way with their hooliganisms, and win over many hearts with their singings and funs.

 

don't know about that, there was that minor incident with the  German fans in Stuttgart (400 of ours arrested and banned) with a few other run ins

 

 

 

I think a lot of it was down to clever German organisation. For all England games, they had set up England-only Fanzones. This was not the case for other matches. For example, at the Portugal game in Gelsenkirchen, all the England fans were directed to the racecourse Fanzone, whereas during the other games I spent at the Fanzones there, fans from both sides mixed at both the racecourse and the Glückauf Kampfbahn Fanzone.

 

I know a lot of the bar owners round here, and many of them said that the English fans were the worst. They were drunk and lairy. Most other fans were drunk and friendly.

[Guest alex]

6: Make it law for each national team to contain at least 7 players in their squads who play their football in their own country to add unique to them and varied styles to teams.

 

That's a sh*t idea, sorry. How the hell would the likes of the Asian & African teams ever be able to compete?

 

Agreed, Ireland would be fucked for one.

 

Not fair if a team has no worthwhile national league that they should be forced to bring lesser players. This would all just play into the hands of the big nations, which goes against what you're saying about trying to stop the superpowers always winning.

 

Short-term yes, but long-term it may actually force nations to start developing their own game from the bottom up, their leagues and for homegrown players to play their football "at home". The globalisation of the sport is ruining the game for smaller nations whose best players as soon as they show even a modicum of talent are leaving to play in other countries which has a massive and underestimated negative effect on their own footballing culture. The world game is very much like our own Premiership, dominated by the big leagues with all the talent floating at the top, the rest becoming bottom feeders fighting over the scraps.

 

As a result competition is almost non existent.

 

The biggest example of this is Scotland, for years their best players have played in England which helped their national team no end, true, however every fabric of Scottish football with every departure slowly but surely loosened, thus wrecking their own competitions to such an extent it has affected player development to the point where the national team manager is checking out the family tree of players like Nigel Quashie whose roots are Ghanaian, just to put a competitive team together.

 

Competitions like the World Cup were designed so players could represent their country and the game in their country, to promote the game in their own country, over the years that has changed however. Most of the French football team are not representing their own game, but ones in England, Spain, Italy etc. for example.

 

Perhaps forcing such a policy would be the wrong way to go... OK, make it a voluntary option then and reward those that sign up with funding to help the game in THEIR OWN country, to improve facilities and such.

 

The game is in danger of falling in on itself as the foundations are very weak and the global sport has a duty to first protect the interests of every nation and not itself, or rather the bigger nations, and that isn't happening. The result. Go to any country outside of the big leagues and the standard of football is appalling.

 

The Dutch who produce fantastic players are going to become the next Scotland, mark my words. Years of losing their better players will catch up with them and bite them on the arse big time, regardless of how successful they are at producing players.

 

Ironically all this will impact nations most at international level, as Scotland have found out.

 

In short in order to protect international interests, you have to first protect domestic ones as the two go hand in hand, if one suffers, so will the other.

 

Nations like Africa will never fulfil their potential because all their best players will leave to play outside of Africa. Short term their national teams will do well because their players are learning a new game and using that experience to good effect, but they aren't taking it back home with them for the next generation so ultimately their national teams will suffer.

 

Cameroon showed the way in 90 with their team of unknowns - but have taken a turn for the worse since as all their best players were snapped up by clubs from the big nations. It has happened to Nigeria too and will happen to the likes of Ghana, Ivory Coast et al.

That wouldn't happen though. Players would still follow the money. It would just make national teams shit in poor countries.

[Optimistic Nut]

Another thing p*ssing me off is the number of players using squad numbers in international football. At the weekend I saw Kuranyi wearing 31, and Anelka 39. F*ck off man, in qualifiers and friendlies it's 1 to 11, and in tournaments 1 to 23.

[tmonkey]

One of the many reasons for the poor world cup is burn out. Too many games being played by players who turn up at the world cup tired and not at their best.

 

International friendlies should be the first to go, or severely reduced anyway. Last season was ridiculous, having an international friendly one week into the start of the new Premiership season. As a spectacle, they tend to be utterly boring, with the pace being that of a charity match. Its great that theyve reduced the substitution limit from 11 to 6, its made the fixture less of a farce, but its still pointless and just disrupts the domestic calendar numerous times, which results in compressed fixtures later on in the season. And its not as though there arent any qualifiers for the manager to get a team going.