I think it should be implemented this would encourage clubs to invest in the youth of this country more than grabbing a quick fix from abroad. There was a rule at one point in the champions league or European Cup as it was known, that you were only allowed so many foreign players in the playing team or squad at any one time dunno what happend to that either, but personally I think that for the sake of national football in this country we should start to implement something along these lines as soon as possible. With so many foreign players coming into the premier league now the wholesale sell off of our national game is almost upon us, with not just foreign players but foreign owners coming to the fold to make money out of us the British fans, money to take back to their own country and leave us squandering.
For some this may be a nationalist view, but I think in order to save the game for the people of this country something needs to be done now, teams like Arsenal who have one prominant English player in Theo Walcott, need to be taken to account, albeit they have this fantastic youth policy it is a youth policy of young foreign players and does no good what so ever to the youth of this country. With a policy like Arsenails in place what chance does the great talent of this country stand of getting to play in our national league pretty slim to none, and it seems over a number of years now the river that was English football talent has become a trickle.
I remember when English clubs ruled Europe us Villa and Notts wankers all won the European Cup and all this was mostly with British players, not one foreigner in site. This is because all the clubs had was the talent drawn from local or regional scouting and then a pretty good youth policy to bring the young players through on a continuous stream of footballing talent enabling the clubs in this country to win major European honors.
I think the argument that the less foreign players we have would hurt the EPL is wrong, it would be just as exciting and fast paced, and I think the youth of this country should be given more chance to play for clubs like Liverpool. I'm not totally against foreign players or foreign investment, I think there is a place for it but it needs to be curtailed and controlled so that the native youth of this country have as good a chance to succeed in the national game as well as foreign youngsters, at this moment in time this is not the case and our native youth are in a second place position when it comes to playing for a large majority of the bigger clubs and this is a fact.
I take your point on that theory for English football prag and I know we don't care about other countries as such but if we think about it closely it would have serious downfalls for our game.
The likes of Drogba, eboue, toure, kalou are the only 4 good players from Ivory coast, (That I can think of). If restrictions on those guys coming to England or any other decent football country, they do not develop their talents. Drogba was a flop till he joined a biggish club in Marseille.
Eboue, Toure, Kalou were unheard of and still would be if this restriction was to be put in place. Your philosophy is excellent for large countries, but why would Shevcenko want to play domestic league in Ukraine, or Ronaldo in Brazil, Essien in Ghana or Samuel Eto'o in Cameroon.
These players are only what they are because they were allowed abroad to explore their talents and develop them further in a larger footballing country and they have a stronger footballing national team bacause of this. If homegrown talent is kept at home (or at least most of) it will never develop in smaller countries.
I think there should be a restriction of sorts (Arsenal) but I certainly think we need a positive mix not to hinder the global game.
Just to think that, (in my view), the best striker in the world comes from Cameroon!!! Why would he, as a youngster, persue a career in football for domestic Cameroonian league!! If I'm not mistaken, the only other household name in Cameroon is Djemba-Djemba (Dear God how crap is he). But Cameroon compete on the international stage quite competitively bacause their talent is allowed to play abroad where football is bigger and it gives them more opportunities.
Now after all that I'm going off to save the world, cure aids, feed the hungry, and make rich the poor. Feel like the good samaritan today.
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