Comments on: Does Football really need the 6 plus 5 rule?

By: Francis

Francis — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 23:45:33 +0000

Can’t think how this 6+5 rule is actually legal under EU law, nevertheless I can see the point of some sort of restriction. OK, English clubs are doing pretty well in European competitions, but the national squad does seem to be drawn from rather a small pool of available Englishmen (of whom of course you ideally want to have a couple of dozen available that are of international standard).
I would argue though that at the very least there should be concessions for players who have been playing in England for donkeys’ years.
eg Edwin van der Saar has been here since 2001, Cristiano Ronaldo since 2003, Brad Friedel since 1997.
At the end of the day, this is about law-abiding people who have come to this country to make an honest living, who have legally-binding contracts with the clubs that employ them, who are skilled and talented footballers and who are local heroes, often in more than one English town and sometimes throughout the nation. (A) Neither the Premier League nor FIFA has the right to act as immigration control. (B) Managers of English clubs are supposed to be picking the players best capable of winning a game of football, not the ones needed to satisfy an artificial quota.
By all means have limits on clubs’ ability to parachute in eleven new first team players at the beginning of a season from whichever foreign country has just won the World Cup. But respect the right of a foreign player to seek his fortune and glory, and the right of a managers to pick his next team without being hamstrung by arbitrary limits on the non-English head-count.

By: English

English — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 11:46:10 +0000

Brillant idea, yes yes yes, just think last time england won the world cup, the english league was all english, having more english player will vastly improve english footy

By: Ryan Neo Yee Shien

Ryan Neo Yee Shien — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 04:49:25 +0000

There’s no need for the 6+5 rule. If the English FA agree to let foreigners play in England, and stifle the budding English talents’ potential, then so be it. Too bad for them.

Now, 6+5. Next time, what? 9+2? Imagine Manchester United without Cristiano Ronaldo, Carlos Tevez, Nemanja Vidic, Edwin van der Sar, Patrice Evra… … They would suck, obviously.

So, dear Sepp Blatter, stop talking about the 6+5 rule, and go expand that impossibly big paunch of yours.

Thank you.

(p.s. Manchester United rocks.)

By: AVPearsall

AVPearsall — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 20:51:55 +0000

I do not see the need for the 6+5 rules, who is Sepp Blatter/UEFA to tell club managers how to run their own clubs, if they feel that more homegrown talent would help their team, they can decide that for themselves, i’m sure they know enough about the game (most of them anyways). As regards to all the talk about restricting british talent coming through (not here, but elsewhere) it’s ridiculous, if your good enough, you’ll make it anyways

By: Average Hero

Average Hero — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 21:09:21 +0000

I support the 6+5 rule and i also agree with the salary capping and transfer tags like Â£50million!

Its not for the sake of international football i feel we should have the 6+5 but for the country. how can a team like arsenal be taken seriously, theo walcott and… the reserves reserves!

I realise this country is a settlers rock and always has been. but look at it this way, italy has around 70% of the itailan league are italians, france is around 65%, german 75% spain is about 60%… while england is around 32% british, thats scotland, northern ireland and wales included!

i don’t except the rule to make england win the world cup next time round, but it will give a lot more english lads a chance to play in the top flight and live the dream. insted of being shoved into the reserves til there 29 and give up and join a league 2 side.

By: USA - Arsenal

USA - Arsenal — Sat, 31 May 2008 06:12:33 +0000

there isnt no fucking lack of english talent ur telling me that england doesnt have enough superstars to win the world cup ur fucking crazy i swear blatter is a bastard him and platini need to fucking leave the game is i swear i watched the english league even tho im spanish american ur telling me cesc has to leave back to barca because of a fucking thats racist what i learned about europe is that no matter where the fuck ur from u can come and prosper and there would be even bigger bidding wars can u imagine barca and real madrid in the spanish league how fucking one sided would that be i swear thanks e.u. i knew we could depend on u to slam the door on such a rediculous proposal

By: Latest Football Scores

Latest Football Scores — Fri, 30 May 2008 20:21:27 +0000

In this years Champions League 4 of the final 8 (Man Utd, Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal) were English teams, yet the national side failed to qualify for the European Championships. There has been so much talk about the lack of players available to England managers that something has to be done.

Part of the problem is that an English player from the Championship or League One will cost you a couple of million, whilst a player of similar quality from abroad will cost a few hundred thousand – we seem to be pricing ourselves out of the chance to buy English players.

By: Mike

Mike — Fri, 30 May 2008 15:58:41 +0000

6+5=0 !!

This is disgusting, discriminatory and an affront to capitalism, free trade and economics in general.

http://startingeleven.blogspot.com/2008/05/fifa-approves-blatters-rule-or-when-650.html

By: ish

ish — Fri, 30 May 2008 14:46:46 +0000

a salary cap would work better. Like lets say you have a salary cap of 3 million a week(a high number but just go with me)
Foreigners to the club are in effect worth 100% of the salary cap. if they earn 100,000 a week they put that much towards the salary cap.
If you are from the same place the league you play in is(ie national player) you are worth 75% of the cap. if you get 100,000 a week its same as an international who gets 75,000.
If you are homegrown(train at the club while you were young for 3 years or more) you are also worth 75%.
For a player who is trained at the club and is from the same country they are worth a measly 50% of their value to the cap.
Of course you need quite a bit of tweaking with ages, actual percentages and max salary per player. Also a cap of something like 1.5 – 2 million euros would make many clubs think seriously about homegrown talent. Maybe make european level contenders use the 6+5 in UEFA and CL so little clubs arent hurt as much.

By: Fateh

Fateh — Fri, 30 May 2008 14:04:53 +0000

There were some very good points raised in the 6+5 blog started by frankie.I suggest all of you post your answers there