After last season, there have been several doubts over the effectiveness of Denilson, Alexandre Song and Abou Diaby. Perhaps rightly so in the case of the latter, who so frustratingly seems to randomly fluctuate between world beater and idiot. Hopefully the extra fitness training he has put in prior to pre-season will pay off this year (yes, I’m ignoring the accident that caused Nasri’s injury!).
Massimo Moratti and Jose Mourinho must be laughing. In fact, the latter might struggle to manage Inter next season because of it. Having pulled basically (bar a few issues here and there) off the deal of the century this week, Inter are looking strong favourites to walk to the Serie A title for a fifth consecutive triumph.
The deal in question reportedly involves Zlatan Ibrahimovic moving to Barcelona for a fee of €45m, Samuel Eto’o on a permanent transfer and Alexander Hleb on a season-long loan deal. Yes, LiberoFootball were also wondering whether Joan Laporta was feeling well when he agreed to sanction such a preposterous deal in the favour of Inter.
There have been many, many questions surrounding the wisdom of such a deal. After all, Samuel Eto’o is a proven, world class striker and Alexander Hleb is suited to Italian football. In contrast Zlatan Ibrahimovic is widely acknowledged as the most overrated striker in world football. In addition, the huge sum of money added to the players being swapped makes it seem vas if Moratti has bulled off his own ‘Italian Job’.
So a salary cap doesn’t seem feasible. But what about a player draft? Is it equally impossible? Once again, given the competition is spread across many countries, player drafts would have to be based on National Football Centres, like the excellent Clairefontaine academy in France. England would have to give speed up the progress of the Burton project for the option to be viable.
Yet the international transfers of U18s would have to be banned for the drafts to work in the individual countries, and quotas, such as Sepp Blatter’s highly controversial 6+5 rule, may have to be implemented. The likelihood of both these actions occurring are nigh on impossible given they also contravene EU law. In addition, clubs who have spent millions on their own academies to nurture talent may be unwilling to let a national draft occur, with the weakest/poorest side given first pick on a player, as is the case in a number of American sports. Barcelona, who have spent millions on their cantera, producing some world-class players, would vehemently disagree with any such proposal.
Yet, they would agree with lowering the age when a player can sign a professional contract, stopping sides such as Arsenal and Liverpool poaching their most promising prospects. Similarly, clubs may agree to the cessation of exploitation of players from poorer regions, although this is always difficult to regulate.
As was discussed in part one of this article, the salary cap placed upon NFL sides increased competition in American football. Yet there are many reasons as to why the monopoly of league titles across Europe will not be broken, if a salary cap is imposed (assuming Football is made exempt from normal labour laws).
For example, if a salary cap was to be implemented for the 2009/10 season, clubs in Spain would have a massive advantage over their English and Italian counterparts, given the tax legislation in each of the countries.
This summer’s transfer market has shown that football is in a world of its own. While the rest of the world struggles through the recession, Real Madrid have taken out loans reportedly adding up to €1bn to fund their excessive spending and Manchester City are throwing money at anything that moves.
Many footballing figures are called for a salary cap to be placed in football to stop the inflated figures from making the world’s most popular sport from becoming solely an expensive plaything of billionaires instead of normal, grounded fans and to increase competition. Yet, any comparisons to a salary cap and draft in the NFL are poorly researched considering the fact that, at least in Europe, extravagant spending occurs across a number of top flights.
FIFA president Sepp Blatter is famous for his laughable hypocrisy and ridiculously obvious bias against the actions of English sides and for sides like Real Madrid on the continent. In 2005, Sep Blatter condemned greed in football and said FIFA were committed to stopping this new trend:
“The majority is fighting with spears, while the greedy few have the financial equivalent of nuclear warheads. It is simply insane for any player to ‘earn’ £6-8m pounds a year
What logic, right or economic necessity would qualify a man in his mid-20s to demand to earn in a month a sum that his own father - and the majority of fans - could not hope to earn in a decade?
What we are faced with is a football society of haves and have nots.This cannot be the future of our game. Fifa cannot sit by and see greed rule the football world. Nor shall we.”
In the above 2005 interview with the Financial Times, Blatter condemned the ‘pornographic amounts of money’ being spent by some clubs in this new era of football. Yet when the extravagant sums of money aren’t being spent by the noveau riche in England of Chelsea or more recently Manchester City, but by Real Madrid, yes, that footballing institution, it seems Blatter has changed his mind. Read the rest of this entry »
When one thinks of legends of Hungarian football, they generally look to those who inflicted the most damage on England in those two devastating displays of attacking football in 1953 and 1954, where England were humiliated 6-3 at Wembley and 7-1 in the return in Hungary.
Real Madrid legend Ferenc Puskas and Nandor Hidegkuti, who hit in a hat-trick in the Wembley match, are widely considered the best ever from the eastern European nation. But what of Bela Guttmann? You may have never even heard of this footballing legend!
Jonathon Wilson, author of the excellent ‘Inverting the Pyramid: A history of football tactics’ calls him the dancing centre-half, a pioneer of Zionist football, and the managing legend that was said to have cursed Benfica. High praise indeed.
Yes, without Bela Guttmann, the Lisbon club may have never won the European Cup, Brazil may have never played 4-2-4 and Hungary may have never humbled England. This Hungarian legend led a nomadic yet an extraordinary life, becoming one of the greatest influences on 20th century football.
Aside from a lack of infrastructure and adequate training for youth players, cultural pressure and racial stereotyping have also affected the development of India as a nation and the prevention of its players succeeding in Europe.
It has been argued that before Premiership clubs attempt to break the Indian market, they should do more to scout the Asian communities living in their areas. For example, 250,000 Asians reside in West Ham, yet not one from that community has made the Hammers’ first team squad.
While the All India Football Federation (AIFF) is slowly improving the efficiency of its own operations, another manner in which youth development is being improved in India is foreign investment from big European clubs. This latest development is unsurprising given the manner in which Indian Premier League cricket raised £1.1bn out of the blue.
While clubs see India as another potential talent pool to tap into, there may be bigger potential to market their own club products and merchandise, given the increase in interest in the European leagues instead of the domestic game. Supporters are likely to prefer to see players such as Wayne Rooney, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi on the small screen instead of local stars Baichung Bhutia and Sunil Chettri (who had an unsuccessful trial at Coventry City), a trend which could be detrimental to the long-term success of the domestic game.
