Sepp Blatter and the six+five rule

[cloudq]

Blatter Targets 'Six Plus Five" Rule Within Four Years

Fifa president Sepp Blatter continues to champion his controversial 'six-plus-five' rule, despite fierce opposition, and is targeting having it in place by the 2012-13 season.

Sepp Blatter, in Sydney for Fifa's annual congress, said rules restricting the number of foreign players that any club can field at any one time could be in place from the start of the 2010-11 season, beginning with a four-plus-seven quota and progressing to six-plus-five by 2012-13.

And Blatter is now claiming that the plan has the backing of key European delegates.

The Swiss football politician cited the Premier League's dominance in this season's Champions League as a reason why Fifa 'must implement' the idea, despite legal opposition from the European Union and Uefa boss Michel Platini.

Insisting that Fifa would proceed "within the limits of the law", Blatter said: "It's to make sure that there is better balance in the competitions and not only three or four teams in a league of 18 or 20 are fighting to be the champion and all the others are just there to not be relegated.

"As [Newcastle United manager] Kevin Keegan recently said: 'I can only start my season to fight to be fifth or sixth or seventh. It is impossible for me to go into the final four'.

"At the end of the Champions League in Europe you have in the quarter-finals four teams of the same association; in the semi-finals three of these teams.

"Then in the final you are surprised that you have two teams of the same association?

"We want to bring some remedies and this is the six-plus-five rule's objective."

Blatter came out of two days of discussions by Fifa's executive committee convinced that the proposal would be accepted when the congress votes on it later this week.

"The executive committee unanimously supported the proposed resolution concerning the six-plus-five rule," he said.

"We've had confirmation by all the confederations, including Europe, that everybody favours the objectives of the six-plus-five.

"I'm convinced, now the confederations are in favour of such a proposed solution, it is a possibility.

"But we should do it not [with] confrontation but in discussions to try and find a solution.

"We would start, step by step, with four plus seven in 2010 and then 2011 five [plus six], then 2012 six [plus five]."

Blatter added: "We've just seen Manchester United's starting XI in Moscow with six players eligible for the English team on the pitch. And they won. Not bad."

Mark Hinton, Goal.com
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while i know this isnt "official" yet, i feel that there needs to be some sort of discussion over this

and especially as it greatly affects teams such as inter

of one aspect is this "foreign players" quota, and its definition

and if worse comes to worse for inter, are we then forced (if no italian reinforcements) to play materazzi, balotelli, bolzini and toldo in the first XI

i obviously hope to be able to include players with italian passports as it would obviously help satisfy this quota easily

but if we cant, are we forced to compete with other italian teams for italian talent

inter's stigma for the past decade or so is that we havent been able to properly cultivate italian young talent, and how that would impact recruitment

i for one would love to see the likes of rosina, cigarini, barzagli and rossi brought in to give inter a more italian look

 

[Stefan]

The EU has already said this is illegal. Hence won't apply in Italy or the CL. Can only apply in the club world cup since that takes place outside of Europe.

 

[scutzon]

Honestly, I'm kind of split between the issue.

It will definitely be great for bigger teams to concentrate more on bringing up and playing local players, instead of buying in imported players. It's like how much I hate admitting the EPL is the best league in the world right now, although the top 4 teams (Man Utd, Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea) no more than 3 good English players in their starting lineup.

On the other hand, we are supposed to be a team of internationals; this is why we are called Internazionale in the first place. And putting this restriction in place will only serve to drive up the price of local players compared to foreign ones. And there is a possibility of top sides weakening due to the inavailability of class local players.

All in all, I think this is a bad idea.

 

[cloudq]

The EU has already said this is illegal. Hence won't apply in Italy or the CL. Can only apply in the club world cup since that takes place outside of Europe.

way to kill this discussion why dont you...

at least assume the "worse-case" scenario and join in active discussion

i know it would only serve to drive up the price of italian nationals, it would also help to keep talented players inside their country of origin as well, knowing full well they can command a greater wage there instead of going overseas

but even the most ardent of inter fans wouldnt simply dismiss the "internazionale" tag, we're still an italian team and should have some sort of italian representation

 

[Stefan]

way to kill this discussion why dont you...

at least assume the "worse-case" scenario and join in active discussion

i know it would only serve to drive up the price of italian nationals, it would also help to keep talented players inside their country of origin as well, knowing full well they can command a greater wage there instead of going overseas

but even the most ardent of inter fans wouldnt simply dismiss the "internazionale" tag, we're still an italian team and should have some sort of italian representation

We were founded by foreigners and italians who prefer to have foreigners in the team. Also that depends on the definition of Italian. Is it those who play for Italy or those with Italian passports??

 

[F-C]

The EU has already said this is illegal. Hence won't apply in Italy or the CL. Can only apply in the club world cup since that takes place outside of Europe.

I agree, what FIFA is proposing will not apply to Inter or any other clubs in the EU.

 

[brehme1989]

It may apply in the CL though

 

[patrick]

If the rule is said to be illegal from EU than it doesn't apply neither in domestic leaguser nor in Champions League.

Champions League is part of Europe, and the rules should comply with the existing laws and prcedures.

 

[brehme1989]

Part of Europe, not the European Union

 

[Stefan]

Part of Europe, not the European Union

Yes but what would they do. Implement the rule in the competition when they play outside the EU but then not have the rule apply when the game is taking place in Italy or England??

I don't think it will get implement in the cl. Too many problems.

 

[patrick]

Part of Europe, not the European Union

Italy, England, Germany, Spain are all in EU so if they are part of EU they should follow the rules of EU or they would be dissmised. The domestic laws of particular member of EU cannot be in conflict with the law of EU.

 

[brehme1989]

UEFA can impliment this rule and force the clubs to indirectly use this, just for Europe though. This will inflate the market a bit though and cause too many problems. I'm just saying it's not impossible to happen

EDIT: And hopefully this does happen so that we can organise a SuperLeague in a cup format and have the teams play there instead

 

[Nerazzurro]

I think like others have said on here, is that it will cause too many problems and complications. Blatter is a fucking moron, and implements these stupid little rules for reasons sometimes beyond me. Is it to make football more "exciting"?

 

[Luka]

Just like Stefan said. This rule is agains the EU regulations, and because EU is a "little" more important than this football circus, there is no way this rule will be imported into the European football.

 

[thomas_inter]

In general I think this is a great rule, big clubs have to much foreign players etcetera... On the other hand, this is Inter! Our name is internazionale and we where founded by foreign players....

So it's kind of a strange thing for interisti... And like everybody here says: it's going to give a hell lot of problems...

 

[J zanetti]

Bandini's take on the matter:

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/sport/2008/05/30/blatters_proposal_for_quotas_i.html

Blatter's proposal for quotas is simply unworkable

Sepp Blatter's '6+5' scheme may be popular with fans, but we shouldn't get sucked in by his rhetoric

Paolo Bandini


May 30, 2008 12:53 PM
As usual, Sepp Blatter wouldn't take no for an answer. Two days after the European Commission denounced his proposed "6+5" scheme, which would force football clubs to field at least six national players in their starting line-ups, as illegal and discriminatory, he put it to a Fifa congress in Sydney anyway. They voted in favour by 155-5.

Support for such a proposal is not hard to come by in this country, especially on the eve of a European Championship in which England will play no part. According to research undertaken by the BBC, just 170 of 498 players who started Premier League games last season were English - 34.1% of the total - and such statistics are regularly cited as explanations for the national side's poor performances. Fans, meanwhile, complain of finding it harder to relate to squads dominated by "foreign mercenaries".
If such concerns are understandable then we must still not allow ourselves to be sucked in by Blatter's rhetoric. For starters his proposals in their current format are simply unworkable. Blatter insisted today that "it is not [Fifa's] intention to go into confrontation with our governmental authorities," yet such a statement only serves to expose his
disingenuousness.
The EU has been very clear in stating its position on such a ruling, leaving us to infer either that Blatter very much intends to confront them or - more likely - that this morning's resolution was just so much hot air, an empty, populist move that will win him support even if he cannot deliver on it.

In the meantime, supporters may want to stop and consider how desirable such a system would actually be. For all Premier League fans may complain, average attendances jumped by over 1,500 fans per game this season - from 34,459 in 2006-07 to 35,991 in 2007-08. The league is currently the world's most watched because it is perceived to boast the highest quality and most watchable fixtures. There is even some temptation to view the proposals as an attack on its success.

Blatter, for instance, attempted to use the fact two English sides contested the Champions League final as a counter-point to demonstrate that what was good for club sides was not always good for a country's international side. Even he, however, quickly had to acknowledge that the winners - Manchester United - had started the final with six English players (OK what he actually said was "six players eligible for the Great Britain team", but we'll leave the finer details of the Act of Union for another day).

Fans hoping that such a rule change might put an end to the hegemony of the so-called Big Four are also kidding themselves. Arsenal may have fielded an average of 0.34 Englishmen in their starting line-ups this season, and Liverpool just 2.34, but the implementation of such a rule would be staged and there is little doubt that such teams - boasting considerably better infrastructures and greater financial clout than their rivals - would buy up English talent to fit their needs. Inevitably, in the end, the top clubs would simply hoard the most sought-after English talent.

The final issue which must be raised is whether the biggest clubs would even accept such a ruling. The G14 may have disbanded, but its former members will not take kindly to a ruling that potentially reduces the quality, and hence the marketability, of its sides. A European Super League operating outside of Fifa's jurisdiction may sound unthinkable, but it is worth considering that many of the bigger club sides are already aggrieved at the way in which they are forced to cede the players whose wages they pay so regularly to their national sides. If Blatter's not careful, he may find in the end that money speaks even louder than he does.

 

[Handoyo]

OK, I'm not sure about Platini's stand on this, but I hope that he'll be the one who leads the EU's dissension with regards to this preposterous plans. This rule will only serves to strengthen the NTs quality at the expense of weakening the football clubs. And Platini, as the head of the organization that promotes the UEFA Champions League, should hopefully reject this proposal.

 

[nutcracker]

I simply don't get this rule. Since when club has to represent its country? where is it written? if there is anything that club should represent, it has to be its city, so whole Inter should be made of players born in Milano. It's not the a national team, it's club, its up to them who will they employ.

 

[achilles]

We are Inter. WTF does this have to do with us?

Yes, we want Italian players on the team. But that includes guys like Esteban and Javier, Walter Samuel and Cordoba. All have "done their time" in Italy, where they were born shouldn't matter much.

Inter should be more concerned about the rules about homegrown players! We need more Bolzoni's and Balotellis!

 

[thomas_inter]

Talking about Bolzoni, is there any change he will make it to the first team next year like Balotelli?

I love the guy!