England’s 0-0 draw with Ukraine last night, although hardly an advert for the national game, means that the hope of automatic qualification for the World Cup in Brazil is alive. Or, to put it more cautiously, the English team’s fate lies in their hands.
England’s 0-0 draw with Ukraine last night, although hardly an advert for the national game, means that the hope of automatic qualification for the World Cup in Brazil is alive. Or, to put it more cautiously, the English team’s fate lies in their hands.
Although I am sure that FA chairman Greg Dyke wants the English team to succeed, a failure to qualify would give additional momentum to his case. As it is, he has already succeeded in putting the future of the England team high on football’s agenda. His commission, whether or not the Premier League takes part or not, helps him to set that agenda and provides a platform for future action.
Probably his most sensible and easily implementable idea is to tighten up the work permit system that the FA administers. At present, 30 per cent of players granted permits do not meet standard criteria and get in on appeals.
Writing in The Football League Paper, Graham Westley wonders why English players are not able to learn from playing with the best players in the world. Unfortunately, many of them are not world class players but Carlos Kickabout.
Westley seems a bit preoccupied with Britain being disadvantaged by its climate. If you followed his argument through to its logical conclusion, we should welcome global warming. Nevertheless, he may have a point.
He argues that many of the world’s leading football powers ‘come from warm climates where possession is more important and defences lie deeper. This creates specific skillsets by necessity … I think that players in warmer climates have to develop better movement, better positioning and more pace and dynamism.’
However, the fundamental problem is that there is no evidence that most fans want the foreign imports to stop. Just look at the frustration of fans who considered that their clubs ‘didn’t make enough signings’ in the transfer window. Greg Dyke is a smart operator, but he is up against the preferences of club owners and probably most fans (although we do not have good data on that and I’m not sure that hypothetical questions in surveys would provide it).