English football does not simply need less foreign footballers - it needs more, and it needs the best, to improve at international level
One hundred and ten! proudly tooted the Premier League at the start of the World Cup. Can you guess what the number relates to? No, not the average percentage of debt to profit ratio for each Premier League club, although good call. It's actually the number of Premier League players involved in Brazil.
One hundred and ten. Like a lot of numbers, it feels significant. Assuming each Premier league squad boasts an average 23 players, as per this World Cup, that infers that nearly a quarter of all the players we watch week in, week out on Match of the Day et al are international players capable of playing in the world's biggest and best football tournament.
Rubbish, grouches the football traditionalist who's no doubt sick of seeing England getting knocked out early again, and perhaps mutters to himself that the English would do a lot better without these foreign international players clogging up their youth teams.
Would they? Nationalism is a funny thing and it has not infected sport in the same way as it has politics and culture in Britain. In England, we love watching Silva, Hazard, Oscar, Aguero, Kompany, Van Persie and Ozil. Football fans in this country are not overtly racist and it would be an interesting exercise to see who the average terrace fan voted for at the last European elections.
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| None of the 2014 Ballon D'or winners play in England |
It's certainly true to say England has a problem with foreign footballers, but what it really has a problem with, as usual, is ownership and strategy. Of the last eight nations left in the World Cup, 37 players play in the Premier League. That's around 20% of the eight squads - and that figure's significantly heightened by ten French players and 11 Belgians. If you strip those two away, the figure becomes less than 10%. Compare that to the Bundesliga, on 38%, and La Liga, on 33%. Still the best league in the world?
Of course, you think, it's natural that if you speak Spanish or Portuguese - as Argentina, Brazil and Colombia do - you'll want to be around people like you. Spaniards, for example. Except that's also not true. Nine leagues are represented in the Brazil and Colombia squads, and seven in the Argentina squad. In England, Spain and Italy, the squads are represented by two, four and two respectively.
Travel really does seem to broaden the mind and it appears, superficially at least, there's little doubt that the English are simply too insular when it comes to their football. But the economics, unlike South American leagues, make it hard to resist playing in one league when it could set the player up financially for life.
The exception of course is Germany, who have 20 of their players based in the Bundesliga. But there is room to develop youth there, without risk of clubs going through the blender should relegation occur. The '50+1' shareholder model is characteristic of a philosophy which ensures financial fair play is pretty much already in place. In both Italy and Spain there are serious long term debt issues for various clubs - much like the Premier League. This year's Spanish champions, Atletico, are over £100 million in debt over unpaid taxes.
English football is simply a smudge on a broader canvas that reflects the way Britain has relied upon skilled immigration to add value to its most lucrative industries - for example, financial services. For the Premier League, see any building housed in Canary Wharf after close of business, when British citizens can be seen scrubbing at the City's skyscraping artifices.
The difference in football, unfortunately, is that the hired help is often better than the in-house. That has nothing to do with money - that, as can be seen in Colombia's squad make-up, is much more about determination and a strong sense of self-worth. The things an Englishman cannot buy.
Britain needs top foreign talent to improve still further, and a greater focus on buying top-bracket foreign players at cheaper players' expense would still mean great entertainment. But would the inevitable culture change mean a move back to traditional, outmoded English tactics? Moreover, would a change in the number of nationalities reduce the likelihood of Brazilians playing in England? There are many more, but questions like this are important.
No one can doubt that the English has improved immeasurably in the wake of David Luiz, Sergio Aguero, Fernando Torres, Nemanja Vidic et al arriving. All have given huge amounts. But if we've learned nothing and simply watched the circus as it passed through town, we have no one to blame but ourselves.
Picture thanks to World Soccer
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