Foreign player limit could get FA Cup trial
Saturday 07 June 2008
Latest in News & Comment
On Facebook
Sport blogs
iBet: AC Milan’s lead at the top looks temporary
Juventus lost the lead of Serie A in Italy at the weekend by virtue of their game with Bologne being...
Financial strife fails to dim smiles at high-flying Rayo Vallecano
This is a club that, despite all it's off-the-field financial problems, is currently flourishing in ...
Hertha Berlin and the Skibbe saga – a depressing tale
Perhaps, in a few decades time, some German writer will transform Michael Skibbe's excruciatingly br...
Lord Triesman, the Football Association chairman, has professed a desire to turn the FA Cup into a trial for Sepp Blatter's proposals to limit the number of foreign players each club can field.
Triesman accepts that the Fifa president's plan to impose a quota of homegrown players on clubs – the so-called 6+5 rule – will probably never make it past European Union anti-discrimination laws and, since the FA is opposed in principle to the idea of quotas, cynics may portray these proposal as a way of currying favour with Blatter to boost England's 2018 World Cup bid.
But the FA chairman is keen to support the idea in an attempt to allay concerns among players and managers that the flow of English youngsters is drying up due to an influx of foreign players. His new proposition is the first time that the FA's flagship tournament has been suggested as a way of implementing quotas.
"The FA Cup is directly within our domain," he said yesterday. "Whether there are legal restraints or not there can be a means of implementing an optimum number of English players participating in the FA Cup.
"Sir Alex Ferguson has come out in support of this, stating his view that there should be more English players in major club competitions, and conceivably, there could be. Of course, it's very dangerous to try to enforce a minimum number of English players – but it can be achieved in ways other than enforcement."
The Premier League and its 20 member clubs, especially the "big four" are bitterly opposed to Blatter's 6+5. They consider it to be illegal as well as counter-productive.
Blatter has the support of Franz Beckenbauer, chairman of Fifa's football committee, and Michel Platini, the head of Uefa, and Triesman's suggestion cannot harm England's standing with them.
But coming amid doubts about the status of the FA Cup , the proposals will divide opinion. Blackburn Rovers, Birmingham City and Bolton Wanderers all played under-strength teams in last season's tournament because they were resting big players for the League – and were eliminated. Premier League survival, it seemed, was more important than a possible place at Wembley.
Handing the winners of the FA Cup a place in the Champions League would be a way of maintaining the competition's prestige – and, allied to Triesman's quota system, it would generate a real need to develop homegrown talent.
Meanwhile, Blatter, Platini and the head of the European Parliament have agreed to further talks over Blatter's controversial proposal. Both men met Hans-Gert Pottering, the parliament president, in Brussels this week and initiated discussions on the the plan, following the recent passing of a motion in favour of it by Fifa.
- 1 Wolves: The contenders to replace Mick McCarthy
- 2 James Lawton: Patience may not be a virtue this time, Roman – Andre Villas-Boas looks all at sea
- 3 Liverpool apology came after sponsor's concerned call to club
- 4 Tevez risks doghouse return with Mancini dig
- 5 Rangers 10 days from financial meltdown
- 6 Sports caption competition winners
- 7 Villas-Boas under growing pressure after training row
- 1 Spotify: 1 million plays, £108 return
- 2 Apple admits it has a human rights problem
- 3 Kate Allen: It's time for America to put an end to this shameful scandal
- 4 Lightning kills an entire football team
- 5 I was born to be a killer. Every night I see the Devil in my dreams
- 6 Now The Sun tries to call in its favours from Downing Street
- 7 BBC to issue global apology for documentaries that broke rules
- 8 Mona Lisa's 'twin sister' is discovered – 500 years late
- 9 Rhodri Marsden: What we like and what we don't like are often closer than you'd think
- 10 Modern lovers: The 'sexual body warriors' and pioneers transforming 21st-century relationships
Free trial of new Independent iPad app
Get your daily dose of the best of British journalism, sponsored by American Airlines
Win a three-week coastal jaunt
Spend three weeks exploring every nook and cranny of gorgeous Atlantic Canada.
Amazing restaurant offers
Three glasses of free champagne and a special menu at 46 top London restaurants.
Latest Independent competitions
Win anything from gadgets to five-star holidays on our competitions and offers page.
Commercial thought leaders
Watch the best in the business world give their insights into the world of business.
Career Services
Day In a Page
No secularism please, we're British
Working as a jail torturer ruined my life
New Arsenal face an old question of credibility in San Siro





Comments