Blatter's Rule Will Kill The Game

by Rohandevgan

FIFA should start preparing for a series of court cases unless president Sepp Blatter removes the new rule he wants implemented by 2010. Blatter wants that all clubs should not have more than 5 foreign players in the starting line up. The EU has promised to make a big hue and cry about this should this rule come into existence. The G14 which represents 18 of the biggest clubs in Europe warned the president about the complications of this rule. Blatter claims to have the support of Franz Beckenbauer, Johan Cruyff and Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson. Arsenal in their last Champions League outing last week had only one English born player. Blatter has asked a newly formed committe to look into the situation of the rule and hopes to make a decision by next may.

Pittsburgh GunnyMajor Leaguer

789 days ago

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The only reason Blatter wants this rule implemented is so that it lessens the club game and maybe, maybe makes those silly International Friendly weekends more important. MLS has somewhat of a similar rule, where each team must have a minimum of domestic players, it hadn't been a problem until Toronto FC joined the league. They are having trouble filling their minimum quota for Canadian players who can play at that level.

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WrmjrRed-Shirting

789 days ago

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The other thing that seems silly to me is the "starter" qualification. What if you have 5 foreign starters and a domestic starter gets injured? You have to replace with another domestic? Or can you have a bunch of foreigners and just not start them? That's just bizarre.

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RohandevganAll-American

789 days ago

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good point

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DonatevoMajor Leaguer

789 days ago

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This is just an ignorant idea. Maybe we should do this in the NBA, or MLB?

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Alex HolowczakHall of Famer

789 days ago

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Sepp, shut it.

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RomiezzoLegend

789 days ago

Score 2

Synonymn: Get bent!

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Alex HolowczakHall of Famer

789 days ago

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Cricket has had a similar problem. Because the English season is out of kilter with the rest of the world (geographically, our season is at the other end of the calendar), it has meant many players want to come over for off-season practice, or have a game. They are better than the English players, but there is a cap that only 2 can be in the squad at any one time. Now, the problem has occured recently, that to get over the "overseas" rule, players are foregoing their nationality in order to play in England. For instance, players are playing in England, happy to concede that they will never play for their country again. It is more financially rewarding to them to play for a County than for their country. That is a sad state for a sport to get into.

In rugby in New Zealand, you must play there to play for your country, but after this year's World Cup, many players will hopscond to the money rich European Leagues (probably with a World Cup under their belt). But it will hurt the game in New Zealand.

Learn from their examples, and just let it happen.

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Pittsburgh GunnyMajor Leaguer

789 days ago

Score 1

After reading that comment and all those comments in that Hockey article I just had a vision of sporting headlines from the year 3007. London Haberdashers win the Stanley Cup, whilst the United States brings home the Ashes.

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RohandevganAll-American

789 days ago

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haha too good

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Alex HolowczakHall of Famer

789 days ago

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I don't think he'll be able to force it through anyway. The European Union has a law that says that you cannot deny work to anybody else within the EU. In cricket, the 2 overseas players rule doesn't count Europeans, but it doesn't make a difference, because I think only 2 Europeans actually are in the County Championship. However, in football, they are good, so there will be much competition over labour. I don't think the EU will give Sepp the chance to enforce the rule, as it breaks this labour law. It's amazing that a crappy EU law is stopping the introduction of a crappy FIFA law. The two deserve each other. :)

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RohandevganAll-American

789 days ago

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This is what Blatter said 'You cannot compare a worker with a football player,' Blatter told reporters during a conference call on Friday.

'You cannot consider a footballer like any normal worker because you need 11 to play a match -- and they are more artists than workers.'

But Vincent said: 'A worker is a worker, so a player is a worker who earns a salary like everybody else.'

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Alex HolowczakHall of Famer

789 days ago

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Frankly, Mr Blatter is talking out of his backside. :)

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TyduffyRed-Shirting

789 days ago

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There is no use even debating it, because it is clearly 100% a violation of the EU law. The only thing they could really do is impose a rule similar to Spain where you have to have a certain number of EU nationals.

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RawbeezeitzMajor Leaguer

789 days ago

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I think this rule is an attempt to level the playing field between massive clubs that buy players from all over the world, and clubs that have to develop their own. It also might be an attempt at making domestic leagues relevant once more, as some of the big clubs seem to view their domestic seasons as a qualifying round for the Champions League.

I don't like this rule one bit. One of the things I love about soccer is that the top tier of club teams are absolutely amazing with talented players from across the planet.

Some countries simply do not produce the quality or quantity of talent as other countries. This means one of two things. Either clubs in these countries won't be able to compete with clubs from other countries, or one or two clubs in a League will posess all the domestic talent.

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RohandevganAll-American

789 days ago

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I don't know about using the League as a qualifying stage to the champions league as some managers especially in the English Premier League say that it is harder and more prestigious to win the League. Also Four teams qualify from the big soccer playing countries so if u wanna contest Champions League u have to be good enough and be in that top four without any problems. (Exception of great teams like Bayern and Juve in the CL this year)

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LASportsblogAAA-er

788 days ago

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The game is global now, there is no way to control that and Sepp should know better. Instead we should be controling the fact that English, Spanish and Italian players go for multi-millions and players of the same skill from tiny nations are taken at bargin basement prices, we gotta find a way to level the financial playing field. So many millions are wasted on kids who have the repuatation of their country.

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JgiuffraDiv-I Stud

786 days ago

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I think he wants to improve the quality of the national teams with this rule. If you look at the 2 biggest leagues in Europe with the most interantional stars, The Prem and La Liga,neither country has been able to win the a major championship for over 40 years. The high number of foreign players in these leagues may have something to do with it. I don't think anyone has anything to worry about though, because there is about as much chance of Derby winning the League as Sepp getting this rule on the books.

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