The Best League In The World ???

In the next couple of weeks, four English clubs: Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool will be involved in the quarter final stage of the highest club competition tournament in Europe, The European Champions League. A phenomenal feat that would surely make any English natives hold their heads up high with pride and the right to claim, that today, the English Premier League is the best league in Europe and the world.

But, along with the phenomenon, comes an irony regarding English football itself. Despite having four clubs competing in the European Champions League quarter final, their very own national team failed to qualify for the EURO 2008 tournament in Switzerland and Austria. The question is why? Why can't they qualify when they have so many world class players and managers in their league?

The answer lies within the nationality of those world class players and managers. Take a look at the nationality compositions of the four clubs that made it through the quarter final. Exactly how many of them can be defined as "English?"

We have four top-class clubs and none of them are managed by an English manager. The closest thing that comes to an English manager is Alex Ferguson who is Scottish by nationality. Theo Walcott is the only top English player in the Arsenal squad, and he doesn't even see regular first team football. Liverpool only has two English players as regular starters: Steven Gerrard and Jammie Carragher. The same number goes for Chelsea.

With so many foreigners, I don't think it's fair to say that those who are involved in the quarter final can be called "English teams." Rather, they should be called a name that resembles global and European teams who use England as their base.

There has been a lot of criticism about too many foreigners playing in European clubs for quite some time now. But then again, this is the risk of progress, the risk of going global. European football, especially English football, has grown into an "international brand" for football since the early 90's. The Bosman rule, globalization, and the EU labor policies and laws make it possible for any player to work and play football in Europe, as long as they have the skills.

In recent years, we have also seen a number of huge investments in football clubs made by foreign investors. These investments are particularly taking place in England where investors see the most potential for growth and profit. Suddenly, we have a Russian oil tycoon, some American sugar daddies, and Dubai's crowned prince as owners of major European clubs. The football clubs have been taken away from their real owners, the fans. And to make things worse, most of the investors invested in football clubs just so they can sell their stocks back to gain profits. Their sincerity to put money into the long term success of the club is highly questionable.

As with any other investments, all that investors want are fast results. There is no time for them to wait for home-grown players to develop into world class footballers. They want to buy already established players, win some trophies as fast as possible, and increase the value of the club before selling it back to another blood thirsty investor.

Football clubs are being taken out of their roots all over England, and there's nothing the FA, UEFA or FIFA can do about it. They condemn the investments, but can do nothing because the reality is primarily concerned about the money. In a free global market, anyone who has the money is allowed to do whatever he pleases as long as it is within the law. And no law can prohibit the buying and selling of clubs.

This is the sad reality of global football, and it will affect the biggest football nations of Europe. Will they have strong clubs? The most definitely will, but will they have the usual strong national teams? That remains very doubtful...