SEPP BLATTER, the FIFA president, has mooted an idea to introduce by 2010 a system that “protects” home-grown footballing talent by having a numerical quota system. The “six-plus-five” (rolls off the tongue!) quota system guarantees that every footballing team, worldwide, will eventually have to field a minimum of six home-grown, as in eligible for the home country’s national team, players. The English FA sees this as veiled attack on the cash rich Premier league. The major leagues in world football; English, Italian and Spanish, attract footballing talent from all over the globe. They attract the best players because: They pay the best wages and they offer the most glory; league championship medals, champions league, UEFA cup. Even for the teams within these leagues which cannot realistically challenge for top honours, for players from smaller footballing nations, the wages and the televisual exposure make the working environment appealing. As ever, media exposure and hyperbole make the lot of a professional footballer something that is difficult to see as anything other than glamorous. The image of all footballers being millionaire playboys is flawed. Of course, those in the top teams do not struggle to pay their bills, but in the lesser teams, many of these young men have to think about accumulating enough money in a decade to last into dotage. So it is no surprise that a talented footballer from a poorer nation would jump at the opportunity to ply his trade in one of the cash rich leagues of Europe.
The six-plus-five rule would hurt a lot of these young footballers and push up the price of already overpriced home-grown players. The argument that this system would give young home-grown players more chance to progress is flawed. This will simply give home-grown players more reason to not try as hard. The Premier league has already shown how some, home-grown, players have flourished, whilst others have bemoaned the influx of foreign players. Frank Lampard, a player seen as overweight and pedestrian in his West Ham days, blossomed at Chelsea in a team filled with foreign talent. Danny Murphy, a talented midfielder player, felt that he had to leave Liverpool to advance his career. Not that his career has blossomed since he moved on. His career has been patchy at best. Nor has he enhanced his national team call-up potential.
To summarise, six-plus-five is a compromise on quality. It would not help the national team, being in a team does not automatically make players better. If that were the case the Scottish Premier league would not be a two horse race, Celtic and Rangers, every season, come think of it, the English Premier league’s title is only contested by four clubs, one of which, Chelsea, can boast an English spine to the team. The six-plus-five system may be dead in the water before it gets going, as there is the small matter of European law to overcome. This will not stop Sepp Blatter from trying to push through the rule.