Blatter: 6 + 5 = Success!

By Brian Lofrumento | 9th March 2009

Blatter: 6 + 5 = Success! | read this item

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sepp-blatter Football fans around the world are all aware of Seppl Blatter’s habit of running his mouth. His previous brilliant ideas in the past have been to reduce the clothing that females wear, expand the World Cup, and make more meaningless competitions. Needless to say, none of these ideas came to fruition. His latest idea, though, may have just struck a chord with the footballing world.

Few ideas have sparked debates like this idea has, but Sepp Blatter has for once thought of something that could help the game. Speaking specifically about the Premier League, Blatter proclaimed that the English game needs to limit the number of foreigners in squads. With Chelsea and Arsenal already putting out entire starting elevens with zero English players, Blatter recognizes a problem.

His plan to limit teams to five foreign players has come under much scrutiny, but under further investigation it appears it could be a good plan. In the current economic situation, homegrown players would go a long way towards solving the credit crunch. No longer would teams be splashing the cash for expensive foreign players; instead, younger players similar to Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs would be given a chance to shine. It has, after all, worked in the past.

There are a few questions that remain, though. First, the legality of the proposal is under review by the European Union. There are labor laws preventing restrictions of employment, but Sepp Blatter remains adamant that his proposal is legal in all aspects. The second question is whether or not executives of Premier League clubs would agree to this plan. As mentioned above, Chelsea and Arsenal would both be paralyzed if this plan was implemented, and it would widen the gap between themselves and Manchester United.

Sir Alex Ferguson has already revealed his support for this plan, and it’s obvious why. While Chelsea and Arsenal have both fielded lineups with no English players, United fielded six English internationals in the starting eleven during last May’s Champions League final. With Ben Foster on the verge of taking Edwin van der Sar’s number one spot, Danny Welbeck becoming increasingly more important at Old Trafford, and Wes Brown and Owen Hargreaves still not back from injury, it appears that number will only increase. There would be no changes at United if the plan goes through, while Liverpool would need to add to their English duo of Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher.

With only one team out of the Big Four built around this standard, it appears United would enjoy even more success in the coming years. Further down the table, though, we could see more parity amongst the rest of the league. For once Aston Villa would be on a level playing field with the other big clubs (or perhaps in a better position than them!), and other sides like Everton could close in on their closest rivals.

To prevent clubs from going further into debt, to improve the quality of the English national team, and to restore the grassroots element of football, I wouldn’t mind seeing Sepp Blatter’s recent initiative come to fruition.

Listen to Brian and Taylor discuss this issue in Episode 12 of the Premiership Talk Podcast.