Beckham Says It’s Not the Foreigners’ Fault

By: Laurie | November 25th, 2007

(First, a disclaimer: I’m really not all that strongly against quotas for foreign players in Europe. My reasons are purely selfish: If quotas were in place, my French boys might not view playing abroad as their best option, and Ligue 1 teams would kick butt in European competition. But that’s not really relevant here. Is it?)

Blame is flying all over the place for England’s failure to qualify for Euro 2008. Scapegoat #1, Manager Steve McClaren, has already been sacked, and everybody is looking for more targets. Roy Keane, for one, is blaming the England prima donna players.

But Public Enemy #1 right now? Those foreign players, snatching up all the spots that should be going to the local boys. No less a person than FIFA President Sepp Blatter says that this is all the fault of those pesky foreigners. And we all know how credible Sepp is.

Interestingly, David Beckham, is coming to the defense of foreign players.

“There’s many excuses out there that people can come up with but I don’t think you can blame it on foreign players,” Beckham told BBC London.
“For me, the foreign players have brought something special to the Premiership and our country. Hopefully I’ll still be playing, and playing well enough, to be in the England squad in 2010

“If you look back at 1974 and 1978 when we didn’t qualify for World Cups back then there was probably 90% of English players in the English league. Now there’s probably a lot more foreign players but I don’t think you can turn round and look at it like that.”

Words of wisdom from our Becks. And he’s right. England’s problems go much deeper than Arsene Wenger’s starting lineup.

UPDATE: My brother-in-blog Matthew has also covered this topic over at the England page at World Cup Blog, so be sure to stop by and read his thoughts.
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Magnusson

Bernd - I don't think the problem lies there.

England doesn't produce young players and they have 355 national players in the EPl more than Italy. Their problem is that they don't have technicians.
They don't have any manager worth adamn since they have to rely on foreign talent to win anything. Look at the disgrace to actually have to choose between an italian and a german guy to head the Nt while the last one to lead them to a WC was swedish
Bernd

Beckham can't be this stupid. Top-flight football in England has never been 90% English. EVER. There has always been a fair amount of 'foreigners' from Wales, Scotland, and Ireland. Hell, the entire inaugural Liverpool squad was Scottish. What a load of bullocks. He needs to learn the history of his own country's league before he should even think his opinion matters.
Brian

Actually, he's wrong. A quota on foreigners is irrelevant (Is it for or against, by the way? Does anybody know? Probably not.) It works in some places like Italy (whether or not it's the company line) and fails others like Spain. It's true England has issues well-beyond players getting to play and develop in the domestic league, but even if they had the best players in the world they would never win an international competition. It wouldn't be allowed. The corruption is too deep seeded and involves playing off national sentiment and exploited compulsion.

I know Beckham is known for his intelligence, but top-flight football in England has probably never been 90% English and certainly not in the 70s. It's an insult to the Scots, Irish, and Welsh whom also made up a large chunk of the league then. Who were some of the best players in the League during that era? George Best, Kenny Dalglish, Denis Law, Peter Lorimer, Billy Bremner, Liam Brady, Frank Stapleton, Eddie Kelly, Kenny Burns, Frank Gray, John McGovern, Martin O'Neill, Archie Gemmill, John Wark, George Burley, John Toshack, Steve Heighway, Willie Donachie, Asa Hartford, and so on and so forth. None of the aforementioned players were/are English and there were many, many more. If I want to learn how to improve my free kick accuracy, I'll ask David Beckham, but if I want a history lesson in top-flight English football, I'll seek answers elsewhere.

Furthermore, England cut off it's nose despite it's face and it had nothing to do with the play on the field. Their omission from 2008 Euro (well, so far at least, we still have the Austria issue yet to resolve) was just the repercussions of constantly putting their hands in the fire. This time they got burnt.
Tom

I actually think all English players should be banned from playing in England at the age of 14. They should go abroad and learn how to play properly. I hear they do things like develop a "first touch", "dribble" and "pass the ball" over on the continent.
Brian

Actually, he's wrong. A quota on foreigners is irrelevant (Is it for or against, by the way? Does anybody know? Probably not.) It works in some places like Italy (whether or not it's the company line) and fails others like Spain. It's true England has issues well-beyond players getting to play and develop in the domestic league, but even if they had the best players in the world they would never win an international competition. It wouldn't be allowed. The corruption is too deep seeded and involves playing off national sentiment and exploited compulsion.

I know Beckham is known for his intelligence, but top-flight football in England has probably never been 90% English and certainly not in the 70s. It's an insult to the Scots, Irish, and Welsh whom also made up a large chunk of the league then. Who were some of the best players in the League during that era? George Best, Kenny Dalglish, Denis Law, Peter Lorimer, Billy Bremner, Liam Brady, Frank Stapleton, Eddie Kelly, Kenny Burns, Frank Gray, John McGovern, Martin O'Neill, Archie Gemmill, John Wark, George Burley, John Toshack, Steve Heighway, Willie Donachie, Asa Hartford, and so on and so forth. None of the aforementioned players were/are English and there were many, many more. If I want to learn how to improve my free kick accuracy, I'll ask David Beckham, but if I want a history lesson in top-flight English football, I'll seek answers elsewhere.

Furthermore, England cut off it's nose despite it's face and it had nothing to do with the play on the field. Their omission from 2008 Euro (well, so far at least, we still have the Austria issue yet to resolve) was just the repercussions of constantly putting their hands in the fire. This time they got burnt.
Laurie

Thanks, Matthew. I'll go in to edit and include the links in the post.
Matthew

I'm glad Beckham's talking some sense. I've written about this here on the Offside http://leeds.theoffside.com/ra... and on WorldCupBlog.org http://england.worldcupblog.or... Foreign players aren't the problem, and turning the Premiership into a glorified version of the Championship isn't going to solve Englands international woes. The point everyone is missing is that there is a REASON that Arsene Wenger won't select English players, and that's that they're not all that good.
Johnny on the Spot

Often people forget to argue that maybe, just maybe England sucks. If England was any good then maybe their players could play outside of England. They can't even hack it in Scotland. And yet they still expect to granted a ride into the big tournaments because they can claim the laws of the game.