The vote has gone through the FIFA congress—the vote for mediocre football played by understrength teams.
This system may make sense to some people, but at the end of the day teams are going to end up on occasion having to leave more accomplished and gifted players on the bench because they have to.
This will undermine morale, fan support and generally ruin the spectacle. Apparently Sepp Blatter has the interests of the development of the game at heart. I think, however, he is actually a power-crazed lunatic who wants to restore the power of FIFA at the expense of club football.
In the last 10 years, it has become apparent that the European sporting public (even the world sporting public maybe) cares less for the FIFA World Cup and more for the UEFA Champions League.
Blatter and Platini seem to be scared they are in danger of slipping into second place. With this ruling, it seems they will get the chance of putting the powerful club sides of Europe back in their "place."
The problem for these guys is, globalisation of culture has meant that even though national identity is still strong throughout the world, more and more people would actually prefer to watch a high stakes club game than a mismatched World Cup qualifier.
This so-called attempt at restoring the strength of the national sides is nothing more than an attempt by FIFA to restore some of the prestige their organisation once had.
I think rather than detracting from the game as they would have us believe, foreign players add to the game in the country they play in just because they are good players in a locale.
The example of England as an under-performing national side drained by too many foreigners in the EPL is flawed, because France and Italy have both won recent world cups and the leagues in these countries have had large numbers of foreigners playing for years. England just need to sort their team out and stop making excuses.
FIFA, for some reason, think suddenly the game will undergo a transformation in which the World Cup is as important as it once was because of this. Obviously, it is all driven by the lack of money in the international game now.
The following excerpt is from FIFA.com regarding the law change:
Background of 6+5
- The foundations of football are harmony and balance between national team football and club football,
- The clubs' loss of national identity is endangering the former and has led to increasing inequality among the latter, thereby widening the financial and sporting gap between the two, reducing the competitiveness of club competitions and increasing the predictability of their results,
- Safeguarding (i) the education and training of young players, (ii) training clubs, and (iii) the values of effort and motivation in football, particularly for young players, is a fundamental element of protecting national teams and restoring sporting and financial balance to club football,
- The universal development of football over the last century would not continue if there were increasing inequalities between continents, countries and protagonists in football.
It's complete bollocks.
11 comments Last one added about 1 year ago — Leave a Comment
S B about 1 year ago
You show such little faith in your home grown players. Lampart, Terry, Beckham and company must be sad reading this.
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illya mclellan about 1 year ago
mate you have completely missed the point of the article. why would they be sad? they are looking at more pay rises as their services become more important in the country they come from. the point of the article is teams will have to play with 'potentially' weaker line ups, therefore detracting from the skill on the field. i really don't know what you are getting at.
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Michael Griffin about 1 year ago
disappointed by this. i cant see how keeping a national identity, and giving players the chance they wont get at the moment, is complete bollocks. of course, everyones opinion would be different if THEY were the player who has all the potential and class in the world, but never makes because of bloody foreigners!
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S B about 1 year ago
The little 8 year old Lamparts, Terrys and Beckhams must be even sadder as people have given up hope in them.
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Simon Williams about 1 year ago
Completely agree Illya. The national team failure because of foreigners argument is obviously flawed from all angles throughout history, yet its advocates are so brain dead that they just ignore it and shout louder when anyone points out the blatant flaws in their argument.
The apparent lack of quality English players coming through, compared to say France for example, is purely down to investment at grass-roots level over a long period of time, coupled with quality of coaching and an arrogance leading to ignorance of foreign methods. The FA are finally taking steps to change this with the setting up of the National football centre, which can hopefully rival Clarefontaine in the long-term.
That said, the English national set up is in nowhere near the dire-straits that the xenophobes like to make out, the U21's for example have not lost a match in over 2 years, other than a mammoth 14-12 penalty shoot out in the semi-finals of the Euro tournament.
If our players are good enough, they will make it through and get their chance, and that goes for mentally good enough as well as physically good enough. Those who leap on the foreigner argument as soon as they are released by their clubs are just proving their manager correct. A strong person would keep their mouth shut, their head down, and prove them wrong in the long term, only the weak are keen to jump on any excuse for their own failure.
I am reminded of the likes of Peter Beardsley, David Platt, players who were released by big clubs as youngsters, in a time when very few foreigners were about. What did they do? they got on with it, worked their way back up, and went on to be huge successes for club and country. The whingeing modern player that Michael obviously feels sorry for would do well to remember such stories.
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illya mclellan about 1 year ago
thanks for your comments, i can't believe the excuse making that goes on about this issue beardsley and platt are great examples of players who didnt make excuses and just got on with it. bit of backbone.
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Alan Corbishley about 1 year ago
How does a good young English lad get a chance in professional football.The answer is he doesn't unless he is a potential superstar.Managers are under such pressure to win because of the huge amount of money at stake that they will play a 26 year old foreign player who is older more experienced,more mature more physically developed and stronger rather than give a chance to a good English lad who needs to develop and learn by playing at a high level.The 18 year old English lad will generally not get a chance unless the new 6-5 rule is adopted.
Why are English players not performing in an English shirt.Most of them play in club teams dominated by foreign players who play a different style of football.Gerrard is not playing to his full potential for England,could it be that he plays with 9or10 foreign players every week and is not used to playing with 10 Englishmen.Therefore if you take 11 English internationals whose weekly football is dominated by a foreign influence and put them together and expect them to play in the english style in might not work and guess what, it it isn't working.
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illya mclellan about 1 year ago
how does any young lad get a chance anywhere in the world? talent. i don't think 18 year old english players are missing out sorry. there are still a host of avenues a decent player will go down. as for your gerrard comment, what has he won with liverpool? i think maybe he plays better football with those foreign devils dont you? And anyway good players play well with good players. why did france win the world cup why did brazil win the world cup, why does any national side perform? because the players are skilled and remember how each other plays. rather than not adapting in training camp after training camp. england should stop making excuse for poor coaching and a generally poor approach to major tournaments from players and officials alike.
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S B about 1 year ago
You both make powerful points.
Geez English football is in crisis!
Reminds me of Brazil in the 80`s and early 90`s. The entire country arguing. Then came a lad called Romario. We almost started playing more volleyball if it were not for him!!
I think the French world cup victory is what sent you guys over the edge.
Hang in there England don`t give up!!!!
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Simon Williams about 1 year ago
A player with no talent Alan will not improve just because he is playing with better players. Why have Arsenal and Manchester United just bid £5-6m for Aaron Ramsey? (ok he is Welsh, but I bet you weren't complaining when our teams were full of Scots and Welshmen, why is xenophobia only refined to away from the British Isles?)
Because the kid has the talent, as has Theo Walcott, Wayne Rooney etc etc. If our kids are good enough they will still play in the top teams. Like Terry, Lampard, Carragher, Gerrard, Ferdinand, Rooney, Brown, all regulars last season at teams that reached the Champions League semi-finals.
As I said above, England u21's have not lost for two years, so don't tell me there are no English players coming through. Its a myth perpetuated by the right wing media to back up their agenda.
The hysteria over the national team in recent years is completely out of sync with their results based on past history.
I remind everyone that we haev only ever won 1 tournament in our entire history. Thats from 19 tournaments (12 World Cups, 7 Euro's) in which we have qualified. We were never serial winners before the foreign influx, and in fact, our results if anything, have improved. In the last 6 World Cups (1986-2006) we have reached a semi final, 3 qf's and one 2nd Round, and one not qualified. In the 6 prior to that (1962-1982) we won one (at home remember), reached 2 qf's, 1 2nd rd, and did not qualify for 2 of them. Very little difference in the records. Its not like we used to win everything before foreigners came and ruined it all, so why do people pretend that we did?
If its all foreigners fault that we are not winning anything now, whose fault was it in the 1970's Alan? When we did not qualify for 4 major tournaments in succession?
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Marvin Dent about 1 year ago
its true though 6+5 is really bad ruling! because not only is it rewarding mediocrity it is also making it harder for small clubs as the big 4 will just buy all the best eng talents.
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