Blatter: Foreign Money good, Foreign Players not so much

By: Bob | October 5th, 2007

Once every month, FIFA Czar-for-Life Sepp Blatter wakes up, rubs the sleep out of his eyes, leaves his gold-platted Swiss cave, and shares his views on the state of football in the world before retreating back to his armchair while his minions plot to increase his personal wealth.

The Seppster came out for daylight today and talked about a couple of his favorite things: foreign players and money. On the money front, Blatter said that having foreign billionaires buying up football clubs like they are purchasing fast food franchises is in fact healthy for the game. More money and more investment leads to more excitement in his view, just as long as that money isn’t being invested in something evil like more foreign players.

Blatter wants to limit the number of foreign players that a team can start in a game, something that is not allowed by European Union labor laws. But wait, he explains, those laws shouldn’t apply.

“Workers in Europe can circulate freely but footballers are not workers,” he said.

“You cannot consider a footballer like any normal worker because you need 11 to play a match – and they are more artists than workers.”

What perfect logic. Because the highly paid players are unable to do their job by themselves they are merely artists and therefore exempt from the laws. One can’t help but think that this same logic applies to Blatter as well. Without his team of lawyers he couldn’t possibly perform his job of being the sporting world’s biggest bullshit artist.

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Eric

I like this idea but I don't see it getting through. To many of the top teams in Europe have more foreigners than locals and won't let this happen. And the English National team isnt suffering from to many foreigners or bad coaching. They are just not a good team period. One world cup like 50 years ago and nothing else to show. They are just a bad team and completely over-rated.
Abby

The English national team has been hurt by substandard coaching and youth development, not foreign players coming in. If the English were better, or better trained from youth, they and the national team would be more competitive. Equally, they could get a decent manager and the English NT might perform better.

Also, the rule in Spain isn't about Spanish players, it's about EU players as far as I know. They restrict the number of non-EU players on a team, but they don't specify a number of Spaniards.
ben

I'm not a pathetic cubicle slave, I'm an artist, damnit!

This whole thing is kinda moot since a lot of foreign players (especially from S. America) easily obtain European citizenship due to the EU's rather lax immigration laws. "What's that? Your great great grandfather fled the motherland during our nation's worst crisis? Here's your EU passport! Now go score some goals for [insert immigration officer's favorite club here]."
Ian

Blatter is indeed a nutter, but I have to admit, there is some aspect of the idea that's tempting. It won't happen in Europe as a whole, but the Premier League going ridiculously international has definitely hurt England's national team, so that's one example of where it could do some good. Even if the requirement was small (say, 3 starters), it might do some good for the NT. That being said, if I was a manager and had to bench someone that was on good form because he wasn't British enough, I'd be pretty pissed. (Or if I was the player, for that matter).
john

Although the logic is completly dunced, I sort of like the idea of limiting the amount of foreign players a team can have. They do it in Spain, and what it does is ensure that Spanish teams remain (at least for the most part) Spanish.

I'm sure some one will be eager to point out that for national squads there are National sides, or that Real Madrid are currently starting less than five Spanish-born players, but then again there are teams like Arsenal who are lucky to have One English player on the pitch, despite being one of the jewels of the English Premier League. Yes, they play in England, and yes, they play other teams in the English Premier League, but aside from that, what makes the current squad English?Then again, if not in league play, where else would we get to see the brilliance of a diverse side like Arsenal, or Madrid for that matter (teams in Spain are allowed three foreign players on their starting roster, but foreign born athletes, recently Ronaldinho, for example, can get around this clause by gaining Spanish citizenship. Perhaps Ronnie's timing was a bit off, though.) So I suppose, in the end, I'm glad the Leagues are diverse as they are. And Sir Blatter is simply a nut.