Sepp Blatter wants to ruin football - and the case for immigration

Sepp Blatter and FIFA want no more than 5 foreign players on a team by the 2012/13 season. What a jibbering idiot. England has the best football league in the world (both Champions League finalists were Premier League teams). We didn't before the likes of Cantona, Bergkamp, and Klinsmann came over. The plethora of international players in the Premiership has raised the standard to a phenomenal level. It hasn't hampered English talent, which now gets to play with the best players in the world every week. Its not like England's dismal international performances are due to lack of quality available for selection. In the last 3-4 years we've had the best group of players since arguably '66. We've just had big egos and crap managers ruining that. If Blatter gets his way, which is contrary to EU anti-discriminatory law, then the Premiership that we all know and love will seriously decline in quality. Fabregas wouldn't have developed so well or so early as it would have been artificially hard for him to get into the Arsenal team as a 17 year old. He would have been competing for one of 5 places not one of 11. Think of the brilliance Blatter could deny us. The free movement of footballers improves football. Its not just good for the players (more money, higher standard). Its not just good for the shareholders (better football = higher gate receipts = higher TV income = higher advertising revenue). Its good for the ordinary fan or viewer. It is improved for everybody. If we put prejudice, and fears aside, this free movement of people is a mutually beneficial action.

I can just see the 2009 Euro Election slogans if Brussels overrules FIFA: "The EU saved football, vote for a pro-EU party, vote LibDem". I jest. Sort of.


P.S. Chris Dillow had a good post about this crap back in October