Steven Gerrard, Liverpool and Englands star player, has added his voice to the growing number of players, managers and officials concerned at the effect the increasing number of foreign players is having on the England national team.
Of the 220 players who started in last weekend`s ten Premier League fixtures, only 74 (roughly a third) were qualified to play for England and the likelyhood is that the number of foreign players will continue to grow.
Asked if he was in favour of the quota system, Gerrard said: “Yes, definitely I am all for there being a rule change.
(It has been suggested that each premier league side fields a minimum of six English qualified players)
“Something has got to happen otherwise there will be more and more foreigners and they will take over. There is a big danger that we stop producing quality young kids because of the amount of foreigners in the game. If foreigners do take over completely, it will affect the national team even worse than maybe it is now.
“I can proudly say I am playing in one of the best leagues in the world, but the important thing is to have one of the best national teams as well. It`s pointless having the best league in the world if our national team is going to suffer in the long run, so it`s important to keep bringing quality players in, the likes of Wayne Rooney, Michael Owen. Otherwise the national team will struggle.”
Gerrard is the first senior England international to raise concerns about the growing overseas influence in our Leagues.
The plan put forward by Sepp Blatter, the Fifa president, and supported by Gerrard could be doomed, as the European Commission, has reiterated that sport will not be exempt from the EU Reform Treaty and that footballers like all other European citizens will continue to enjoy freedom of movement.
What is your view, is Gerrard right, do you care about the National team ?
Even if you don’t care about the England team, do you agree that a poor National side will ultimately undermine the premiership ?
Arsenal are currently Englands (term used very loosely) best side, but they rarely if ever include an Englishman or any other British National in the starting line up.
Are English players not good enough or is it that they now cannot get signed on at pemiership clubs because of the large number of initially cheaper foreign imports and foreign managers favouring their countrymen ( Wenger of Arsenal and Benitez of Liverpool, Gerrards own manager ! both cases in point).
Football lovers, let us have your views ?
Article submitted by regular Vital Huddersfield poster, patriot, X Arsenal fan and football lover “tonytime”, whom we thank.
Link to Trevor Brooking article on this subject HERE
Link to Stuart Pearce article on this subject HERE
LINK to humorous look at the foreign future HERE
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Stevie G is right, but he should admit that some of the players have not done the business in the England shirt, not him, but sopme others. As for Arsenal they are not an English club anymore, I dont class them as anything other than foreign.
you can see where its going, great premiership, crap national side, Wenger, Benitez etc are doing immense damage to the national team, their job is to succeed with their clubs, the FA need to legislate. Thank goodness Gerrard has spoken out.
I dislike rules and regulations, but its gone too far, the Authorities need to do something to protect the English game. Agree Arsenal do not represent an English club anymore they should be in a Euro League.
The teams that are top of the premiership usually supply most of the national side, Man Utd, Liverpool, Chelsea all still do this, but Arsenal don’t. But in any event Gerrard is just trying to deflect criticism away from the side being not very good under McClarens management. Sack McC and things will be a lot better.
The Euro Super league gets closer and closer, English players should play for less cash, they are too greedy thats why the clubs go for cheaper players wages with foreigners.
Football is changing, money rules, and below Gerrards level the foreigner players are cheaper, its basic laws of economics. The fans are changing too, clubs like Arsenal have some die hard old school English fans and due to their lack of English players a lot of non English supporters, you dont see it at Huddersfield because you are not in the top flight.
Tonytime, following your last ”effort’ about Arsenal damaging the english game, I posed you a challenge, to take up Amos on a five qestion/answers session to justofy/raise your points regrding this pathetic misnomer of a debate, as you were embroild most deeply with Amos over this. Amos submitted his questions on the 17th of September, yet you have ducked andswering them for night on two months now.
If you really wish to partake of a serious discussion of this, why do you continue to duck the questions Amos left for you almost two months ago. Come and answer them on our forums. Or are you blowing nothign but hot air?
Also, here’s an article which Amos found and posted on our forums, all you people who are up on this particular bandwagon will enjoy reading this, you might actually learn to consider something aside from the usual media drivel aside from newspaper tosh and stop spouting ‘coppell lite:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/columnists/columnists.html?in_article_id=493474&in_page_id=1951&in_author_id=342
»»Arsene Knows««
Towntalk. Pennant, Ashley Cole, Bentley, have all turned out for England recently and were all a product of Arsenal. Not to mention the current crop of youngsters like Sidwell who will go on to be the mainstay of the England midfield. Arsenal supply 4 players in the England under 21’s and no doubt that will grow even more once the under 17’s come of age. England are crap, they have always been crap and it has nothing to do with foreigners in the game. After th 66′ world cup and up till the formation of the Premier league, how many major trophies did England win. None!! How many foreigners were in the game? Very, very little! Another point why this will never happen. Small countries like Belarus and Ukrain do not have a top profesional league. They rely on their stars playing in Europes Elite. A move like that MIGHT (and thats a big might) strengthen a very select few, but the majority of countries including everyone in Africa will suffer! It will never happen. If England want the bigger clubs to bring through more English players then the only way to do it is to enforce a salary cap. English player demand more money in the transfer market and bigger salaries. Its their own stupid fault because foreign players are cheaper.
Arsenal haven’t been in a position to purchase top English players for some time now due to their inflated price and our need to buy a new stadium. There are few top English players who would be better than we already have, Gerrard and Rooney are probably the exceptions. Either this is too complicated for you to understand or you are just aiming for more hits on your site again. You’ll probably see more English players at the club within the next few years as the stadium is beginning to pay for itself. Do you not think that nurturing players like Upson, Sidwell, Pennant, Walcott, Bentley etc, and releasing them to clubs where they are likely to play is more of a benefit to the national team than having them rot in our reserves???
Good point hatespur! Everyone should look rather ata club like Chelsea who took one of the most exciting young English players in Wright Philips and single handedly destroyed his career!
Blah, blah, blah, blah. No wonder all you tools give such a ***** about the national team when your club is utter garbage but why not ask the question about why Gerard plays for one of the most foreign sides in the PL is saying this rubish? If they were to field a whole English side it would consist of himself, Carragher and Crouch. How do you think the players are going to be able to match it against the best in the world in the WC if they are playing against sides of West Ham or Boltons qulity every week? I just hear a bandwagon coming, jump on it!
Look at previous topics and how many hits Toytime has had. Talking about a proper club is his only way of generating interest in his posts.
The inability of Arsenal to field a team of British nationals is a symptom of the problem affecting English football – not its cause. You are shooting at the wrong targets. There are many reasons why England isn’t a production line of footballing talent, if indeed it ever was, most of them political and sociological. Selling off school playing fields, lack of investment by the FA and the XBox generation all play their part amongst a multitude of other shortcomings. The faint hearted amongst you believe that if you close the borders and put up the shutters the problem will go away. That Brazil, Africa, Eastern Europe and other parts of the world will stop producing hungrier, more committed, dedicated and trained athletes and somehow English youth will get better without having to solve any of the fundamental flaws in the way we educate players. Simple solutions are always attractive but they are rarely the best. If its not too late someday we will have to wake up to the real problem because the EU won’t break its fundamental tenet of free movement of labour, Spain won’t give up its easy access to South American talent nor France its seam of talent from its former colonies. Until then close your eyes, put your fingers in your ears and blame Johnny Foreigner.
I was at Anfield a couple of weeks ago and saw kids kicking a ball around in the street for the first time in years. Make you right Amos that new aged kids have such realistic simulations of football that they don’t want to get cold and wet attempting the real thing. This isn’t completely unrelated to the fact that child obesity has soared in recent years.
points well made fellow gooners. I am sure Tonytime will not swing by back to the arsenal forums to answer the questions awaiting him, and to pose his own in replythough, he’s nothing more tha a hit-and-run poster, who says his piece, then does does not respond to counter arguments,, instead he resorts to calling people ‘sheep’, before disappearing. No ‘cojones’ (that’s spanish for ‘balls’, for you huddersfield fans). »»Arsene Knows««
Where are the responses?, what is this knock and run? just have a potshot at johnathon foreigner and leg it?, Gerrard despite in another article saying ‘don’t blame Maclaren, blame us the players’ for their unlikelihood of Euro qualification has just weaseled out of responsibility by shifting the blame on that easiest of targets. If the Hudders posts above are a fair representation of what England fans think (truly doubt it as not all could be as pig ignorant) then I hope Russia feckin t***** Israel this weekend. Instead of blaming the FA for its utter failure to spot a born loser in Maclaren and pumping nothing into youth development and coaching nationwide at grass roots level, no lets call for foreigner quotas, yeah that’ll work lol, instantly overnight thousands of previously unknown world class English talents will appear out of the woodwork, rubbing their eyes in the bright sunlight, noble English warriors in a brave new world, England all of a sudden remember to hold onto possesion, and ditch the need to permenantly hoof it upfield, they win every game 5-0, theyl go on to win the next world cup. then you numptys wake up in a wet sticky puddle.
ok, huddlesfield is a great club and all but, my friend, are u communist? i mean quotas is elitist and racist not to mention against every principal of democracy, meritocracy and hardwork..
but i guess its all double standard now is it?
This site hasn’t had so many hits since – well the last time they included Arsenal in an article title. Shame there’s never anybody at home when you call though. The article calls for a debate but everyone runs away and hides. You are left with the distinct impression that this site is a sham. If its contributors are unable or unwilling to engage in a debate why begin the charade of pretending you want one?
Fear not Amos, we’ll have Toytime doing his secret undercover missions to eradicate anyone with xenaphobic usernames before you know it. He understands irony though whilst he continues to post his little englander tosh ridiculing the Gunners. Oh my sweet lord. It’d be amusing if I thought he wasn’t serious. Has anyone managed to come up with any stats regarding Huddersfield’s contribution towards the national s**t???
Hellllooooooo??? anybody therrreeee??? It’s OK little munchkins – do not fear the foreigner assimilating big boys, come out and show yourselves….. we have not come for your first born or your munchkin harvest….. we merely want to talk. hellllloooooooo??