05.30.08
6 + 5 = 1
No doubt that Blatter’s 6+5 proposal is due to the fact that he hates English football so much.
The first English final of the Champions League saw only half of the players on the starting lineups of both teams English (that’s too small a number by Blatter’s standards, so a Liverpool v Arsenal final could have pushed the due date to 2010). This, as well as the foreign legion of the Premier League teams is considered a travesty to the real roots of football – a game that has already been marred by the “pornographic” amounts of money thrown about in these modern times.
The number of foreigners in England’s top flight does show disproportionality, especially in this recently-concluded season. An article by BBC (available here) highlights this shocking statistic. But does it warrant a fine-tuning of foreign players in all leagues around the world?
The EU has already given their say in this, rejecting this proposal over the Eurozone free employment rule. We have seen how FIFA wants to be the biggest entity in matters even outside of football time to time, but getting over the EU would probably be a greater challenge than ever before when it comes to FIFA’s empire.
Then we have the issue of La Francophonie, as well as Spanish and Portuguese-speaking countries. Indeed, the French league boasts a good amount of African players, especially those hailing from former French colonies. We can say the same with Portugal, through Angola and Brazil, and South Americans play in La Liga because of the language accustomisation. If this is perceived as exploitation, reversing this intricate system will actually backfire the development of the youths in those countries – as good players move to big leagues, others will get their chances at home. It’s actually the agents who are the bad guys anyway.
In a few years, these players would be “naturalised citizens”, another loophole in the rulings of FIFA that makes Blatter cringe, and wants to plug and seal with this 6+5 rule. Big clubs won’t have these “feeder clubs” like your PSVs or Royal Antwerps anymore, hence the smaller clubs won’t get the benefits of playing good but “pending” players bought by the bigger team.
Hence I am against this ruling, but would rather suggest a better proposal that exists in my own country’s top-flight: have 3 local under-21s in the squad at every matchday.
05.27.08
Mark’s not-so-smart move?
One of the more interesting transfers that have already been completed is Mark Schwarzer’s move from Middlesbrough to Fulham on a free transfer. Citing first-team action as his motivation to move, he shunned off offers from top clubs like Juventus and Bayern Munich. This could result in mass changes in the goalkeeping lineups of some Premier League teams – Paul Robinson has been touted to fill in his boots at the Riverside.
I can understand why he rejected the offer from Ranieri’s Juve, but not Bayern. For one thing, he can speak German and would feel right at home there. Then there’s the prospect of working with Jurgen Klinsmann, and playing in the Champions League, and with a new coach everyone starts on a clean slate so I’m certain he would have a chance to play ahead of Michael Rensing.
Then you have Fulham, who actually have quite a number of top keepers there. He’ll be competing with the likes of Keller (still uncertain if he’ll prolong his stay), Warner, Batista and Niemi. I have a soft spot for Fulham, one of Inamoto’s old clubs, but Fulham will always be an average team, so ambition-wise is also a question mark for Schwarzer’s move. There’s no real change in scenery to Boro who will always end mid-table at best.
He’s now at that “golden age of keepers” of the late 30s… the retirement age of keepers is always a couple of years later than outfield players. Hence the chance of playing for a great European side has passed him by, an acclaim that fellow Aussie keeper Zeljko Kalac is still relishing.
EDIT 6/6: Looks like the contract does underline his first-team involvement: Niemi wants a transfer, Warner’s released, Keller doesn’t look like he’ll be staying.
05.21.08
After the big one
I would like to say congratulations to Manchester United Football Club for winning the premium Double. What a wonderful season the team has had. Of course, the league wasn’t won by a mile but that’s better for the game.
And indeed, their third European Cup wasn’t won by a mile either. It had to go down to penalties to determine the winner, and if only for me to console the losing captain who slipped on the way to a winning penalty, the weather and pitch was against him – but even so it is not any different to any English weather or pitch I would add.
There are some points I need to raise about the game, namely:-
1. Park Ji-Sung omission
As an Asian I am disappointed that the three Koreans that potentially could have taken part in the two European finals did not get a look-in. (As a pro-Japanese person I’m glad on the flipside…) Sir Alex may have included Hargreaves due to his form, but to leave him out of the bench altogether may be a bit too harsh. Sure he may have been missing through injury in the first half of the season but Silvestre was on the same treatment table.
But tactically it was probably the right decision. Recently I’ve watched Park play and he does lose the ball a lot. He is also not really an accomplished finisher. Yes he is quality, but his industrious running and engine would probably be more suited to the league, and hence he has won back-to-back Premier League medals to his name to satiate that point.
2. Refereeing
The refereeing was generally poor on the small decisions such as corners and throw-ins. It often fell luckily for United so we’ll be hearing complaints about it soon enough.
We need a superstar referee after Collina (and probably Merk). So far refs like Lubos Michel and Spain’s Cantalejo are still not quite there. But watch out for the next big Italian referee in Rosina.
3. RESPECT
The all-English final had everything about the non-tactical English football into the game – fast-paced movement, tackles, even the weather, but also, unfortunately, the indiscipline. Players on both sides were free and relentless to scream abuse at the referee, and one incident led to the sending off of Didier Drogba (although not directly a refereeing problem, it still produced scuffles). There were also lunges, some unpunished, that caused a few bickerings. Where has the RESPECT campaign gone? English football have always been such hypocrites when it comes to this; they strongly object “simulation” but hounding the referee and raising voices are equally as displeasant.
4. Chelsea
The side was dodgy coming into this, let’s be honest. There are problems in that camp. But I just feel really sorry for Roman Abramovich. I’m trying not to blame anyone for it, but it’s just that I think that man has invested heavily and has indeed brought success to a club in the doldrums and looking to be overridden in debt, yet is still not being repaid in what was his showpiece event, a glorious chance.
I feel very good that the traitor Kenyon led the team to picking up the losers medals though. Incidentally I think I saw Avram Grant throwing his away in Mourinho fashion (only that the medal was for losers).
5. Future
Next season will be very hard for United to retain the Cup. Bayern is back and is strong as ever, the Italian and Spanish sides are getting better too. The English sides’ European dominance will fade next season, I think only 2 will get through the last 16. AC Milan had missed out, that’s interesting.
For Chelsea, it will be a smaller squad in terms of quality next season – a summer net profit is needed so the club will lose some top players, maybe Lampard, I seriously want him to move and improve his game for the sake of England. It was so close, but in the end, today I’d like to be celebrating more than I’d want to silently weep and listen to my aunt talking trash about United to me. (It’s a nice thing that my mom and brother share my allegiance, my dad’s an Arsenal fan so we always love to take the mick out of him.)
Bravo United, if the gaffer says you’re the greatest team he’s ever had then it goes without saying. I just hope that with this win, more people will look up to the English teams and not be disrespectful of them, especially using the perennial powerhouses like Real Madrid, Barcelona, the Milan sides etc as a yardstick to measure success. Sure enough the teams have foreign talent to help them but you can’t deny that 1) every big club has their own foreign talent and 2) it’s not that English teams aren’t doing anything about their youth.
But like I said previously, it’s the England youths that need to be exposed more, but I’ll leave that argument for another time.
05.20.08
Before the big one
I’ll write about the 2007-08 football season after the Champs League final and possibly the Premier League playoffs. I need to think back and gather my thoughts on this one.
Who will lift the silverware in Moscow less than 24 hours from now? My heart says Man United will win, but my head says Chelsea.
I just think that Chelsea, or to be exact Roman Abramovich, have been saving the last few years for tonight. The Russian owner made no secret that the ultimate goal amongst a long list is for Chelsea to be crowned the kings of Europe, and where better to win it than on his homeland. I’ve read that he has booked the best hotel in Moscow for the celebrations after the game. When did he do this? In the group stages. Such was his confidence that Chelsea would go all the way, it beats the anticipation of United having a case to fit the trophy in the team plane.
On paper, United have the edge. One word I can say about the Chelsea first eleven is that it’s erratic. Take away the core players of Cech, Lampard, Carvalho and Terry and you’re just not certain who else is playing. Some of them are either long in the tooth, sporadic, jittery, sulky or just turned invisible. I don’t even need to name names. You just don’t have that uncertainty in the United team.
But to me what swings it Chelsea’s way is where United have ignored things. While the passing of Mrs. Lampard propelled everyone in Chelsea to a semi-final win against a legendary European team in Liverpool, the Munich air disaster anniversary can’t give the current United squad the same determination, culminating in a home loss, against, unbelievably, rivals Man City. Also, had Barca not been in limbo and low in confidence, it could have been different – alas, United had only scraped past them.
What about the face-to-face record of these two teams? It was only the third last game of the season that Chelsea beat United, not to mention the past few games where rarely United had win. Cast your mind back to last season’s FA Cup final, that is also a stark indication that Chelsea have got United’s number.
A consolation could be, if United don’t win tonight, that Sir Alex stays on for next season’s campaign. It must be a bolt out of the blue for me to be saying he’ll be retiring, but it’s a possibility and we must not count that out.
So there, I predict with my head that Chelsea will win – but I’m supporting my heart with this one.
