That’s what Ali G would say after reading UEFA President Michel Platini’s comments on Thursday. I’m surprised this story kind of flew under the radar this week. Maybe that’s because he’s been saying the same things for so long now that it’s just tuned out.
The Frenchman has been a big advocate for limiting the number of foreign players on domestic clubs for quite some time and last month’s Europa League final really fired him up. FC Porto v Sporting Braga was never going to be the most enticing draw in Dublin, but the 45,000 people that almost filled the AVIVA were treated to as entertaining of a 1-0 final as you’re going to get.
The problem in Platini’s eyes was that 14 of the 22 starters were South American. Just as Sepp Blatter wants his presidential legacy to be remembered for bringing the game to new places—it definitely won’t—Platini is striving to build a legacy of local identities throughout his growing melting pot of a continent.
“If Porto are in Portugal, they should play with Portuguese players instead of buying left, right and centre from other countries. European clubs should produce their own talent and not buy in bulk from other countries.
You would think that the young players from Brazil and Argentina would be better off playing in their own championships.”
Talented South American players have been leaving home in their teenage years for a long time. The money and opportunities in Europe have always exceeded those in the southern hemisphere, and realistically always will. Look at any squad in any league in Europe and you’re most likely to find a handful of South Americans. Brazilians play everywhere and may never be eclipsed by Argentinean or Chilean exports despite the emerging talent and lower cost associated with ‘not being Brazilian.’
I fully understand why Platini wants to see local football represented in European leagues. But the reality is that the economics of the game have always controlled where the very best players play, and the growth of the game worldwide has simply driven the displacement of talent.
The best Portuguese players haven’t played in Portugal since the early 1990’s. As soon as a French player becomes a star in Ligue 1, he gets sold to the Premier League. The crop of talent behind them simply is not as good as the top talent from South America or Africa which is why the European game has ‘globalized’ so quickly over the past 20 years.
It doesn’t end with a distaste for foreign players. Platini isn’t a big fan of foreign owners either admitting he wasn’t happy that Qatari investors were buying up a 70 per cent stake in Paris St. German, from their current American owners.
“I’m not so keen on foreign owners, but they are the laws of England and France, there’s nothing I can do. You can have an owner from Qatar, a general manager from Italy, a French coach and players from 25 countries. Football has always been based on identity, regions, countries, so I’m not a great fan of this idea.
The truth is, and I’m sure Platini is still wise enough to know it, the game has grown so big that it’s unsustainable. The only way to sustain it at a level of functionality, is by having outside money and the very best players from wherever they be from, involved.
I used the Ali G headline as a joke. Platini’s comments are not actually racist. There was a time (his time) where the beautiful game was regionalised. You played with the best in your region and wanted to be better than the guys in the next region. Every facet of life used to be like that. But that’s the key phrase to that sentence, ‘used to be.’ Life is not like that anymore. Everything has been globalized, so the global game was always going to be too. We see the best players in the world playing for the best teams and it usually makes for highly entertaining football, but at the cost of ‘local idenities.’
Somehow I suspect he doesn’t have a problem with italians playing for France ;)
Well said. It’s not Porto’s fault that every time they develop a Portuguese star, the vultures swoop down. If he was serious about this he would’ve installed a team Salary Cap years ago. He isn’t. He’s a French windbag trying to outdo Blatter.
Why the “vulture” talk, Danny J? Would you like it if Porto management and fans were described as vultures for buying all those South Americans? If the rest of the world can watch and fund European football, they should be allowed to play in it. Period.
Once North American and European multinationals stop exploiting the rest of the world, I’m sure Platini’s plan for regionalized football will go through.
Good scouting isn’t a crime. But the fact is Porto has held some of the top talent in Europe over the last decade, and any team in any of the big 3 leagues would have used that to fight at the top of Europe for years. Porto, on the other hand, is lucky to compete for the Champions League once every five years due to said vultures swooping in, enticing the talent with fatter contracts, and forcing Porto to go back to the well. It’s not like the players they’ve sold are ALWAYS going off to have a better chance at lifting silverware. How else can you explain Lucho (Marseille), Lisandro Lopez (Lyon), Diego (Werder Bremen), Luis Fabiano (Sevilla), Maniche (Dynamo Moscow), Assuncao (Atletico Madrid), Aly Cissokho (Lyon), and the other 100 I can’t remember at this moment leaving Porto for teams with the European pedigree of Toronto FC? Porto is one of the most financially stable teams in Europe as a result, but at the same time it’s sad to wonder what might’ve been had there been parity in the form of a hard cap on salaries.
I have to disagree Dunlop Football has always been this way. Italy’s World Cup winning sides in 1934 & 1938 were full of Argentinians.
Real Madrid’s great side in the early 50s was built around Alfredo di Stefano from Argentina. Benfica’s great side of the 60s was built around Eusebio from Mozambique.
Even Barcelona with their fantastic youth system have relied on non European players to be there stars; Ronaldo, Rivaldo, Ronaldinho, & Messi.
Would the Dutch be anything like the same team in the 90s without players from Suriname? Davids, Seedorf, Hasselbaink, Winter, & Castelen
The fact is that ideas and players move around the World and always have. That is why a game invented in England is now played in over 200 countries. There are regional differences in how the game is played what formations are used and sort of players succeed there. The Premier League and Serie A do not play the same type of football. Leagues have the regional identity not clubs or players. It seems that Plantini’s fear is that a young player could grow up in a country and not get a shot at making a team in that country. Which is not the case anywhere. Clubs want players from their own country to connect with the fans. Just look at the premium that English clubs pay for English players.