I see Blatters got it in for us...

<h1>Blatter's quota vote could force clubs to cull foreigners</h1> <div class="photoCaption" style="width: 294px; margin-left: 10px">
<p class="credits">AP</p> <p class="caption">Blatter plans to submit the 6+5 rule to the Fifa congress in Sydney in May</p> <ul class="paging"><li class="label"> enlarge [/list] </div> <div class="articleRelated"> <div class="articleTools wrapper"> <ul class="articleTools">[*] Print [*] Email [/list] </div> Search Search Go
Independent.co.uk Web <div class="bookmarksBox"> <h2>Bookmark &amp; Share</h2> <ul><li class="digg">Digg It<li class="delicious">del.icio.us<li class="facebook">Facebook<li class="stumble">Stumbleupon[/list] <p class="help">What are these?</p> </div> <div class="fonts">Change font size: A | A | A</div></div> <p class="info"> By Nick Harris
Wednesday, 6 February 2008 </p>

</p>

The most radical shake-up of football in decades could be just months away after Fifa's president, Sepp Blatter, said yesterday that he wants a vote on quotas for home-grown players to take place in May. </p>

Under Blatter's proposal, club sides would be forced to field a minimum of six players eligible for the national team of the country in which they play. In England, this would mean teams such as Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool being fundamentally dismantled and reshaped to include at least six English players for all games. </p>

In theory, this could happen as soon as August. In practice, major legal hurdles will probably prevent that. But Blatter's announcement is the strongest signal yet that Fifa, world football's governing body, intends to do everything in its power to introduce quotas in some form as soon as possible. </p>

The springboard for the announcement was a meeting on Monday of the Fifa Football Committee, a group of prominent players, former players, coaches and officials, including a representative of the players' international union, FIFPro. Those present included Blatter, Franz Beckenbauer, Pele and Sven Goran Eriksson. </p>

Eriksson, whose Manchester City side is dominated by foreign players, was presumably among those who voiced, according to a Fifa statement, &quot;certain doubts as to [the] effectiveness&quot; of the so-called &quot;6+5&quot; plan. But the same statement also announced that the Committee &quot;considers the 6+5 rule in principle as necessary, and also advisable from a moral point of view.&quot; </p>

Most significantly, Blatter plans to submit the 6+5 rule to the Fifa congress in Sydney in May. A Fifa spokesman said: &quot;Until a firm agenda is finalised a few weeks before, we can't guarantee a vote, but the Committee meeting seems to indicate there will be a vote on the application of the rule.&quot; Barring an uncharacteristic change of heart by Blatter, Fifa's 208 member associations will be asked in May to vote &quot;yes&quot; or &quot;no&quot; to the introduction of the 6+5 rule. A simple majority carries sway in such votes, and a &quot;yes&quot; would set in train an extraordinary change in the world game, not to mention inevitable legal challenges. </p>

The Football Association, which would have a vote, has gone on record as saying &quot;we prefer meritocracy to quotas&quot; but would not decide on a voting stance before consultation with Fifa &quot;and the stakeholders of the game in England&quot;.</p>

The FA's representative on the Committee, Trevor Brooking, was not at Monday's meeting, and the FA was unaware of any plan by Blatter to put the 6+5 rule to a vote in May. Under EU law, quotas preventing EU nationals from working in other EU countries are illegal, but Blatter believes the EU might listen to pleas for change because of &quot;the specificity of sport in the new European Treaty.&quot; </p>

He hopes that if football itself democratically votes for the quotas, the EU may allow them. As in all politics, yesterday's announcement is probably more the start of a bargaining position than anything.</p>

 

blatter is an idiot anyway

he was the one that suggested women should only be allowed to play football if they wore skimpy outfits for men to perv over.

 

That sounds reasonable enough! nt

 

I think oakwell will agree with his policy of

culling foreigners

 

how is it a radical shake up?

more like a return to a version of previous rules

about time too

and it wouldn't affect us that badly as everyone would face the same rules and we'd be able to play many of our good foreign players. It will provide a good balance.

 

Aren't his views a bit racialist?

I'm sure an argument could be constructed to that conclusion. What's wrong with a multicultural team playing in front of a multicultural audience? I bet the stands of the big city teams have supporters from all over the globe. Why shouldn't they be able to watch players from all over the globe?

 

Great reporting

"In England, this would mean teams such as Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool being fundamentally dismantled and reshaped to include at least six English players for all games."

Yes....and in Spain it would mean their clubs being reorganised to include Spanish players, etc.


Not sure they'd get that past the EU though.

 

Can't see how they are gonna do it. Players from other Euro Union member states have a right to come and work here. Surely European law can stop it happening. Its discriminatory. My worry regarding the effect of this on BFC is that all of a sudden players like Kozluk and Howard will be needed by PL clubs to fill out their squads with decent Englishmen. We will only be able to attract a poorer standard of English player. The whole idea will lower the overall standard of our leagues.

 

I think the culling of foreigners is a bit harsh

But the idea of having 6 home grown players is something I agree with. I think.

 

I think it's a fantastic idea...

...as long as they phase it in it shouldn't do too much damage to teams who have a lot of foreigners and in the long run it will be better for everybody...the big transfer fees will be kept within the english league system and the national team will obviously benefit as well.

 

agree with him 100% nt

 

barnsley and the likes will have to become even more of a selling club

than we currently are. Any decent player will have to be sold in order to afford the scraps.

 

Why ?

We will have to ensure that the Youth set up actually works then . I think that this idea is the best one the old fool has ever had.
Teams should never be able to put out a side that does not contain any home country players, like Arsenal etc have done, in recent seasons.
People complain that the National team are rubbish, but having so many foriegn players has been one of the root causes of this. Home grown talent gets passed over in favour of players from overseas.

 

Would also spread the better foreigh players more evenly nt

 

Agreed nt

 

the country (like any country) only has a limited number of good quality homegrown players

who is going to buy them all if they aren't allowed to buy foreign? premier teams, meaning a bigger gulf between them and the rest. the smaller teams will never be able to afford to keep their players.

english players will be on higher wages than ever before and will basically cripple the smaller clubs.


and i've never worked out the rubbish about foreigners stopping english players being good. I don't remember one game where the england manager has picked a foriegn striker over an homegrown one to be honest.

If the english players are any good then they will get in the premier league sides, if they arent they wont, its as simple as that.

 

RE: Why ?

National team were still rubbish before we had so many foreigners playing over here.</p>

Will the Scots, Welsh and N.Irish be classed as foreigners and what about players who gain UK Citizenship?
</p>

 

Difference being

Nearly every team in La Liga already has 6 Spanish or homegrown players in their starting line-up.

 

It will indeed

As the opposite'll happen of what's happened in the last 10-15 years or so, where the good English players have filtered down the leagues because of all the foreigners coming here.

 

I dont want to sound silly but

The England manager cannot pick a foreign striker , only English qualified, so how does that work?
Dou you really believe there is no talent out there at grass roots level?
That there is no young talent out there?
Is it better for Arsenal to fill tgheir youth system with young French players, that will improve their National team , or spend the money on coaching young English talent? If the teams are full of Foreign player, hoew can any English youngster get a chance to gain experience and be ready to play International football.
A perfect example is the current Goalkeeper situation in England, just how many English keepers are there in the Premiership? hardly any most teams have a keeper from overseas, yet every school team in this Country has a keeper , so the players are out there.
Is it the coaching system that is to blame for the lack of young talent coming through?
Are you happy to see 11 foreign players playing for the top teams in this Country?
I would like to see homegrown talent playing week after week, rather than players who are brought in to make up the numbers cheaply.

Just My opinion tho`