Foreign Ownership is Ruining the British Game

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I am not going to beat around the bush with this one but dive right in for my reasoning for such a bold statement.

If I was English I would be probably called a Xenophobe or some other name, I will probably still be called a racist or will be insulted by some keyboard warrior. I say bring it on, this is what I believe is ruining our game. If I had a billion pounds Antoine the footie lover would not want me to buy Liverpool F.C. yet Antoine the Liverpool supporter would think otherwise.

The Premier League is the No.1 league in the World (so they say), what has that done to the English game other than having clubs struggling with debt and player prices inflate beyond belief ? As England struggles in an other International competition it makes me wonder as to what exactly has the Premier League done for England?  I believe that all the United Kingdom national teams have suffered because of the Premier League.

Rewind back to 1982; England, Scotland and Northern Ireland were all participating in the World Cup and this was at a time when only 24 teams took part. English clubs were dominating the European landscape and lifting European trophies and the thought of English clubs being owned by foreigners was unthinkable. The year is now 2010, England are the only home nation in the World Cup and struggling to make it to the knock out stage and no British team made it to the Champions cup semi-finals.

All we have to do is look at the other countries, can you imagine if a foreigner tried to buy Real Madrid or Barcelona? Or a foreigner tried to buy A.C. Milan or Juventus? Or a foreigner tried to buy Bayern Munich? It would be unthinkable, so why are the crown jewels of English football such as Liverpool F.C., Manchester United (appologises to my fellow Kopites for referring to them as a crown jewel) and Arsenal are owned by foreigners? Some leagues have special rules and laws to prevent foreign ownership, even here in the U.S. I would never imagine the possibility of a foreigner owning the New York Yankees, Boston Red Socks or Chicago Cubs. So why is it O.K. that my fellow Yanks buy English Footie clubs?

Some might argue that Chelsea and Manchester City have done very well under foreign ownership. Maybe the club has done better but has it been better for the English game to have such inflated player prices? Has it been better for the English game that the local young talent is being squashed ? Call me old fashioned but I miss the good old days when a scout from Liverpool could go to Scuntorpe and pick up gems like Kevin Keegan and Ray Clemence who would go on to lift the European cups.

Yes there are some bad British owners too but overall it has been the foreign ones who have inflicted the most damage. I can’t believe I almost got through this article without mentioning Hicks and Gillett.

-Antoine

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4 Comments

  1. I agree mate, totally agree

    i hope we get new owners, and fast… but the future of our beloved club does look bleak…

    YNWA

  2. You have some points, but you fail to see the bigger picture. Back in 1982 there were fewer countries competing on the highest level, over the past 30 years more nations in Europe, Africa and Asia have grown bigger and better in football. I doubt that England, had we banned foreign players and foreign owners, would have been much better. Perhaps the opponents had been somewhat less good, as the Drogbas and Adebayores hadn’t risen in such numbers had they been forced to play in impoverished countries African countries. But hey, I’d rather have a world full of talented footballers than a few countries always in the top.

    I think that England have been unlucky in the WC, that’s all. They only lost one (?) game in the qualifying rounds. If you want to point fingers, there are plenty more to point at. A lot of youths stay in playing Xbox rather than play footy in the streets, as they did 30 years ago. There’s more competing for youths attention, a stark contrast to impoverished countries where kids make footballs out of a few plastic bags that they tie together. I’m currently travelling in Ecuador, football is huge here (despite their lack of success internationally) and I see kids playing everywhere, in the streets, in the fields and without goals and without proper balls. I rarely saw that when I lived in the UK a few years back. Not to this extent.

    It’s not the league that has gone wrong, it’s partly down to society. It has little or nothing to do with foreign owners or foreign players in the league. I think England has a great squad, they’re just doing a poor WC so far. Spain hasn’t really impressed either so far, and their league is full of Spanish players. The Dutch league is well-known for being a springboard for foreign talent, yet they seem to do well both in growing talent and in the WC.

    Whatever you blame, as well as what I blame, will ever grow to become a coherent theory that is up for scrutiny in all the corners of the world. In most other sports it’s considered a positive thing to have better competition to play against regularly, as it increases your own skill. It has to be the same with football, letting domestic youth train with and play against better opponents early on.

  3. Its easy to blame owners being a Liverpool fan,

    Ever thought why these gems are hard to find ?

    is it because one team is rich another is poor ?

    No the reason English football is in decline is grass roots football

    kids now a days do not even play 11 a side on a full size pitch

    its all scaled down and the long term effects are what we see today

    pure talent will show through and be snapped up by the big clubs no matter who owns what club and how wealthy they are

    As for over inflated prices, that is a tactic used by the power houses of world football to stop other teams from competing for world class players,thus bridges a gap that would be virtually impossible to close,and greatly weakens the opposition

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