World Cup 2010

[nakamura]

Yes great to see him get it.

[Stoppy2000]

Now watch him make a right cock up in front of the whole world. He had a pretty terrible two season in the Premiership so god knows why he has got the biggest job of all.

[Kongster]

Spurs fans won't be too chuffed about this haha.

[saturn-gamer]

Thing is that within the corrupted world of Blatter, the referee boss is a Spaniard. I'm not too happy with Webb as their choice. Kind of a dodgy ref. I would prefer Olegario Benquerenca as the ref.

That seemingly incapable people get top jobs left and right within the FIFA supposedly has to do with lots of asslicking from within.

Its one sick organization. Money grubbing over the backs of the poor Africans, no dime goes to the country. Its a big farce, within 2 months its all deserted and filthy yet again.

[On The Edge of Insanity]

Interesting comments from the head of La Liga about Spain's success relative to England's.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/jul/08/jose-luis-astiazaran-la-liga-england

Jos? Luis Astiazar?n has questioned the number of young foreign players at Premier League clubs and said the principal reason Spain have reached Sunday's final against Holland is that "77.1%" of footballers in their domestic league are Spanish-qualified, a direct result of home-grown players being given the opportunity in their clubs' first teams. In the Premier League fewer than 40% of players are English.


"In La Liga there are 77.1% Spanish players, 16.7% European and 6.7% non-European," Astiazar?n said. "Our strategy is to work very hard with young home-grown players and to try to have a mix between them and experienced players.


"Why is it not a high number of foreign players in La Liga? Because we invest more and more in young Spanish players than in young foreign players. England has many times taken young players from outside who are 14, 16 years old. These kind of players are not English. This is one of the most important differences between Spain and England. We invest in young Spanish players. In Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester United there are a lot of young Spanish, French and Italian players ? maybe this is why at the moment you are not creating young English players.

[merf]

yes, lets not forget the golden age of English international football of 1974 to 1986 when our league was almost exclusively filled with British players, we didn't even qualify for 2 of those world cups, shows you how important it is to have your league full of homegrown players.

[On The Edge of Insanity]

But that was a different era, in which most leagues would have boasted primarily home grown players. Clearly at that stage, English football was some way behind the rest of the World.

I won't argue that the influx of foreigners into the Premier League has not had a positive effect, because it clearly has, but, as the article states, it has now got to the point where top English clubs are investing in the youth development of French, Spanish and Italian players rather than English ones. The number of experienced foreign players in the league is not the problem, it is the fact that the next generation coming through at most of the big clubs is primarily foreign. You would struggle to find another league where that is the case.

[merf]

but rather than simply blaming the clubs for developing foreigners should we not address the issues as to why they do so ?

if British players were good enough, had good enough attitude and were bought up with proper technique etc do you not think our clubs would be all over them.

the argument is that the whole of elite European football ignores our young players, assuming there must be some efficiency and knowledge in a market that large looking for competitive advantage it would appear our youngsters simply are good enough.

go watch a team of 9y olds playing on full size pitches with a midget in goal and you get the idea why our game is so flawed and you are statistically more likely to be a pro player if your birthday is in the first 6 months of your school/intake year.

[Number45]

Sir Trevor Brooking (<3) has been arguing this point for years now, and each time he makes recommendations the FA ignore him. I know previously it was because Brian Barwick didn't want him to have an influence, I'm not sure what the problem is now.

Hopefully they'll look deeper into this. Ideally you would have the grass roots game fixed by the time we host the World Cup in 2018 (Assuming we do, obviously), but it's already too late for that I think.

I wonder if a policy of picking younger players REGARDLESS OF WHERE THEY PLAY might have a positive effect? If they play for England and play well enough, it puts them in the shop window for bigger clubs which in turn will give them the benefit of playing with and against better players.

[Kongster]

The FA are to blame as much as anyone else for the lack of decent youngsters coming through in England. It was they who imposed a rule whereby clubs can only bring in home grown youngsters who live within a five mile radius. Is it any wonder why clubs in the Premier League look abroad to bring in youngsters nowadays?

After Germany flopped in Euro 2000 with an ageing squad, the DfB made it a priority to invest in youth development. They are now seeing the fruits of the labour with the current German side.

Had the FA could have got Wembley completed on time, they could have saved themselves some money and invested it in youth development as well. But no haha.

[abigsmurf]

Forgot who said it but on the radio they made a very good point:

The focus on development of players at school level focuses too much on winning and not enough on developing players. You get teams where everyone is above average that win tournaments and the players get scouted and developed. However a rubbish team with one exceptional player gets ignored because his team never gets to finals.

For England, you don't want nor need 100 above average players, you'd much rather have the few exceptional players.

I also feel that we should encourage more English players to play in foreign sides. There must be a good number of players in mid table mediocracy teams who could probably get into champions league sides overseas (doesn't have to be barca or Real Madrid) for example.

The few English players who do go overseas tend to do so for an easy retirement.

[EJG1980]

Totally agree with the above, I've seen it mentioned so many times on the telly / radio but nothing ever seems to change.

Matt Derbyshire with his move to Olympiacos is a good example other English players could follow. He's in a decent side, gets to play Champions / Europa League football, and I expect he's got a lovely lifestyle over there.

[Number45]

At times you have to wonder though if the FA are so insular that they wouldn't go and see him?

Spot on though, big clubs from around Europe are always on the look out for the next French/Italian/Dutch/Spanish starlet but there's rarely any interest or talk about young English players. Something definitely isn't right.

[merf]

Spot on though, big clubs from around Europe are always on the look out for the next French/Italian/Dutch/Spanish starlet but there's rarely any interest or talk about young English players. Something definitely isn't right.

they don't want them as for the most part touch, technique and general football educational have taken a back seat to engine and running around a lot.

there's no mystery to it, our whole game from the ground up is under-coached (we have the fewest coaches by a massive margin of any of the 'top' footballing euro nations) and consists of children from an early age playing lump it matches on full size pitches where winning is the priority.

the smaller skillfull ball players and even those who are simply up to 11 months less developed than their peers have no platform on which to thrive as the big lad who was born a week into the school year will be gaining all the praise for his 'passion' & 'commitment' from a sideline full of tattoed chavs who chain smoke & stink of the cheap drink they got twatted on the night before.

simply having invented and popularised the game isn't enough, its a lazy stupid approach and is getting exactly what it now deserves.

[toythatkills]

The focus on development of players at school level focuses too much on winning and not enough on developing players. You get teams where everyone is above average that win tournaments and the players get scouted and developed. However a rubbish team with one exceptional player gets ignored because his team never gets to finals.

For England, you don't want nor need 100 above average players, you'd much rather have the few exceptional players.

Isn't that what England have got now, though? Which doesn't work? Surely the opposite is true, players that play in winning teams are more likely to play successfully as part of a team, and that's what England lacks.

Anyway, Spain to win, says the octopus.