FIFA Quota: What Does 6+5 Mean for the English Premier League?

So what will 6 + 5 mean to the English Premier League?

To quote FIFA

“a club team must start a match with at least six players that would be eligible for the national team of the country in which the club is domiciled.”

Putting aside UEFA’s and FIFA’s disagreement on how a player would be defined local or by nationality, if we are to follow in the footstep of Sepp Blatter we would have players defined by nationality.

This would mean that six players from England would have to start each Champions League or UEFA Cup game. With the same 6 + 5 idea to be moved into domestic play in the future. Given that UEFA president Mr. Platini has branded English Premier League cheaters, apparently more concerned with debt consolidation than to his own Juventus bribing officials and intimidating other teams. I feel that the football powers would push this regulation as far as they can with no concern about how it may effect UK teams and how they operate.

If this rule were used domestically as stated by UEFA as being the end goal, UK teams would have to change their player purchasing and scouting dramatically. Given this rule at the beginning of this the 2007 Premier League season you would only have four teams starting the required amount of players (West Ham, Bolton, Newcastle and Aston Villa). At the other end of the scale you have Arsenal with Theo Walcott and Man City doubling that Englishman total with two starting (one of them being Darius Vassell and hardly seems to count).

While I agree that the idea protects the national game and puts the English back in the English Premier League there are issues that need to be addressed.

While the UK is under one political government, in football terms players from five countries—one not even part of the UK—mix without borders. Players from Scotland, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Wales and England all co-mingle in one language.

This rule would harm players from the smaller countries. Players such as Ryan Giggs would not count as a local player for Manchester United, Robbie Keane for Spurs or Craig Gordon for Sunderland. Both perceived large and small clubs would start to pay a premium for English players even if there quality was sub par to their Welsh, Irish or Scottish counterparts.

While rising stars like Gareth Bale would still get a chance, would other lesser-known Welshman get a chance? What would happen to the Welsh national team where over 75% of the team plays in England?

This works the other way around also, where some English players unable to make it into the English national team will use a descendent to claim another country allowing them to play for Scotland, Wales or Ireland. For example, Jack Collison who plays for Wales was born in Watford, which is not exactly west of the Welsh border even if we wish it were. Would Jack even bother claiming the Welsh flag as his own if it meant he would be a mark against his club team?

Even Manchester United with their endless budget and large contingent of players playing for the England national team would have to manipulate their starting line up to make it. Only having eight English players in their squad of twenty-one, a few mid season injuries and soon they would be looking to buy new players instead of using the squad, as it should be.

The ultimate conundrum would be Cardiff City, who are a Welsh team but play in the English Leagues. Do they have to start six English players or six Welsh players? Of their current squad of twenty-one players they have five English players, five Welsh, three Scottish, three Northern Irish, two Irish and three Continental players. Any 6 + 5 Rule would severely hamstring clubs of this nature who scout all over the UK to bring in affordable talent.

Around the world, large networks of Scouting would go to waste, as African and Asian players would no longer be as attractive to European clubs. Preventing the growth of Football in the continents we’re trying to promote growth in and completely contradicting why were having the next world cup in South Africa.

Simple rules put into effect can have large effects down the road, and while I appreciate the idea behind 6 + 5, my concerns lie to what are the side effects of this rule are. Mostly affecting the freedom that the UK has in their pooling of players.

UEFA and Mr. Blatter have made it quite clear that they are not sympathetic to UK teams and forgive me if I don’t show a lot of faith in the man to allow him be judge and jury to our rare situation here in the UK. I don’t feel I am being paranoid when the UK teams are singled out in the press by Mr. Platini while at the same time Juventus and now Porto have both been hit in the last few years for MATCH FIXING, debt consolidation seems pretty mild considering its LEGAL.

Talking of Porto funny how its now been proved that they fixed matches domestically in the same year that they won the Champions League. Now I seem to remember some dodgy calls in the semi final that year…