Imports on the rise in Premier League
More than half of league composed of non-English players
Posted: Wednesday August 12, 1998 01:09 PM
| |
Spain's Ferrer is one of the many imported players in the English Primier League Ben Radford/Allsport |
LONDON (AP) -- English soccer is almost a contradiction in terms
these days.
The Premier League is stocked with so many imports from Norway,
Italy, the Netherlands, France and other countries that English
players are becoming nearly obsolete at some clubs.
More than 150 non-British players are registered with the 20
Premier League clubs. When the new season kicks off this weekend,
fewer than half of the 220 starting players are expected to be
English.
Debate over whether the influx of foreign stars is good or bad
for the domestic game is taking center stage.
On the upside, British fans can see some of the world's biggest
stars in action every week. On the downside, budding young English
stars are getting fewer chances.
Organizers of England's 2006 World Cup bid market the Premier
League as the most "cosmopolitan" competition in the world,
embracing more World Cup stars than any other.
Campaign director Alec McGivan said 75 of the players at the
France '98 World Cup played for English clubs in the 1997-98 season
and half the nations had at least one squad member based in
England.
Apart from Europe, English top-flight soccer is attracting
players from Africa, South America, Australia and the Caribbean.
The major reason why foreign stars are flocking to England is
that the Premier League, thanks to television revenues, has become
the richest soccer league in the world. Clubs are able to pay huge
transfer fees and salaries for top talent.
England's Professional Footballers' Association president Gordon
Taylor has been outspoken in his criticism of the foreign influx.
"How many [Michael] Owens have been lost to the game because
there was no stage for them to develop?" he said.
Taylor cited Chelsea, which has 16 foreign players on its books,
as a prime example.
Chelsea's Italian player-coach Gianluca Vialli went on a summer
buying spree, spending 12 million pounds ($19.68 million) on
foreign players while selling British players.
Vialli signed French World Cup star Marcel Desailly, Spanish
international Albert Ferrer, Italian Pierluigi Casiraghi and Danish
international Brian Laudrup. They join an international cast that
includes Italians Gianfranco Zola and Roberto Di Matteo, France's
Frank Leboeuf, Romania's Dan Petrescu and Norway's Tor Andre Flo.
Dennis Wise and England World Cup player Graeme Le Saux could be
the only English players figuring in Vialli's plans this season.
Chelsea -- the League Cup and European Cup Winners' Cup holders --
is the league's major importer, although clubs like Arsenal and
Derby are not far behind.
Football Association spokesman Steve Double said having the
likes of Dutch striker Dennis Bergkamp playing in the Premier
League generates appeal for spectators.
"On the downside, it could be stifling the development of
home-grown players," he said.
Double highlighted the number of foreign goalkeepers in the
Premier League, including U.S. internationals Kasey Keller
(Leicester) and Brad Friedel (Liverpool), as one problem area.
"England once prided itself on its goalkeepers, who were the
envy of the world. Now there's hardly any English goalkeepers in
the League," he said.
Double ruled out the introduction of a cap on foreign players
joining the Premier League.
"You have to bear in mind that with the introduction of the
Bosman rule, we've just come out of a situation where the cap on
overseas players has been removed," he said.
But former England coach Terry Venables believes there should be
restrictions on the number of foreign players allowed at each club.
"Not only would this ensure that only the best players were
bought to add to the quality of the game but it would also,
perhaps, encourage some caution on the prices paid," he said.
Arsenal coach Arsene Wenger, a Frenchman, warned that foreign
players would start dominating England's domestic competition to
the detriment of the national team.
"Nothing can stop the arrival of foreign players ... everyone
knows that eventually it will kill off the young talent," Wenger
said. "Ultimately it can only mean the death of the national
team."
The Arsenal boss admitted he had contributed to the problem --
the FA Cup and league champions have 13 foreign players, including
Dutch pair Bergkamp and Marc Overmars and French World Cup heroes
Emmanuel Petit and Patrick Vieira, on the roster.
West Ham manager Harry Redknapp said Wenger was wrong.
"If you're young and you're English, you have every chance of
making it. If you're average, it will be harder," he said. "I
don't see anything wrong in that. The game's in better shape now
than it has been for years. I would say keep them coming, not keep
them out."
David Mellor, head of the government's soccer task force and a
lifelong Chelsea fan, said foreign players only improve the quality
of play in England.
"If I wanted a lad to really get excited about football and be
determined to play the game the right way, I'd much rather he
watched Bergkamp and Gianfranco Zola than the kind of Brits that
used to wear their shirts," he said.
"People say English talent is stifled but that's rubbish.
Michael Owen had no problem displacing [German international
Striker] Karl-Heinz Riedle at Liverpool."
Premier League president Mike Lee said surveys showed the
overwhelming majority of fans wanted international stars in their
domestic competition.
"It's the reverse of the situation a few years ago, before the
Premier League was formed, when a lot of our best players went
overseas and played in Italy and other countries," he said.
"Attendance at matches is up 40 percent and foreign players have
had a lot to do with that."
Copyright 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
| 
