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IMPORTS
IMPORTS
HURTING OR ENHANCING
GLOBAL FOOTBALL LEAGUES?
I
n the first season of the Premier
League, Dion Dublin broke his leg.
In part to cover for his absence,
Sir Alex Fergusson brought the
French player Eric Cantona over
from Leeds United.
Manchester United, with
Cantona as the catalyst, won the
inaugural trophy and delivered
United’s first title in 26 years.
The squad of 1992/93 boasted
one Russian, a Dane and Cantona.
The rest of the squad was from the
British Isles. In many ways, Cantona
is the headliner for what happened
next. Hardly the first foreigner
to play in England, he came at a
time when TV money started to
rain down on the league, from
a drizzle, to a shower, to today’s
monsoon. Bringing more than just
goals, he showed how continental
flamboyance and headlines could
open up the game, making it more
tactical, elegant and global.
Today, United’s squad’s ratio of
foreigners to locals has flipped.
Eleven English players fill out the
squad of around 40. It would be
a fascinating fantasy battle to
pitch Mourinho’s United against
Fergusson’s, and it would be a close
run match.
But overall, it is a given that
the squads filling out the Premier
League this season are vastly
superior to those filled purely with
Home Country players.
As leagues around the world
start to crank up their profile, they
all face the same pressures as
those experienced in England 15
years ago. China, Australia, the USA
are the most obvious examples of
newer leagues that have to face the
vexed question of whether foreign
players are hurting or helping the
local game.
English football might have
improved, but are there other
matrices through which a healthy
league can be judged. Consistently
over the past three seasons,
English players have made up less
than of a third of most match day
teams. Scottish players, who used
to be heavily represented in the 80s
and 90s, have all but disappeared.
The economics are simple
enough. England is engaged in a
vicious cycle. Local players of the
highest calibre are in short supply,
because of the influx of foreign
players. This causes inflations,
which means that most teams
are looking for cut-price deals in
Europe or South America. Which
limits opportunities for local
players. And so on.
The most common complaint
about this imbalance is two-fold.
Firstly, the Premier League is not
representative of its nation. How
can it be the English Premier
League when an English manager
has never won it? When teams
regularly run out onto the field with
no one called Smith or Jenkinson in
the squad?
The second problem
is that the national team
suffers. It is no coincidence
that the English squad
has gone from international
competitors –coming third at Italia
90- to laughing stocks. Aside from a
creaking Wayne Rooney, it is tough
to identify a single super star in the
English team.
For the nascent leagues around
the world, they need to make tough
decisions. England serves as an
extreme example of what happens
when the floodgates are opened.
The US, China, Australia and all the
other countries who have been in a
cycle of re-branding and rebuilding
their leagues need to decide on
whether they need the shot of
adrenaline that foreigners provide
or whether they should just breath
deeply and start small.
China has recently been making
news with its high-profile raids on
European and South American
players. The clubs are supported
by big business interests and by
the governors of their cities. China
is working hard to make its league
competitive, and foreign players are
seen as an expensive necessity.
Everything in China is political.
Chinese excellence in all fields is of
vital importance to the ruling class,
as international recognition helps
them to justify their vision both
at home and abroad. When they
TimothyMottram