The Premier League has a reputation – Controversy surrounds the league almost continuously and it’s damaging the league and more importantly – it’s damaging the football.
In recent years, foreign players have flooded into the Premier League and are influencing the game massively. Simulation, notoriously used by Europeans and South Americans, is sneaking into the game of players who don’t need to cheat. Players like Gareth Bale, Ashley Young and Luis Suarez have all been at the centre of diving rows, but with the quality they possess they needn’t be.
Diving is cheating, no matter what anyone says or how they try to justify it, it is cheating. Before the sudden influx of foreign players into the Premiership, it was rare that something like diving would cause such debates as we have nowadays. I have heard people say such things as “Diving has become part of the game!” or “If he didn’t dive he would have been fouled anyway!” and it sickens me. Diving is the cancer of football and only recently have referees begun to brandish yellow and red cards for simulation.
In La Liga they have a system to keep the number of non EU players to a minimum. Each team is allowed a maximum of 3 non EU players in their match day squad. Although this rule does not eliminate diving in it’s entirety, I’m sure it would help the Premier League significantly. The influence foreign players have on the English game is huge and is ever growing.
Deploying this role would not only benefit our domestic leagues, but it would have a huge change on our national team. With the number of foreign players limited, it would give the younger English players a platform to showcase their abilities. Very rarely are young English prospects given the chance to impress at top clubs, because the level of competition from foreign signings is so great. Youngsters are usually sent out on loan to lesser known clubs and nine out of ten times, that’s the level they stay at.
I can also happen the other way round which is ever increasing, a young English talent shows signs of great potential at a ‘small’ club and almost immediately a ‘big’ club comes calling with an extortionate sum of money that is too good to refuse – with such a move, a players first team chances become limited and the sum of money that they have been purchased for creates huge expectation. The English expect too much, too soon.
In Spain, with this rule in place it has worked wonders. The Spanish national team, as we know, has become one of the best national teams of all time winning the last three major tournaments. Young Spaniards are being used throughout all La Liga teams and seeing the talent that is coming through, it’s safe to say Spain’s dominance isn’t ending anytime soon.
For England to do this it will take time of course, but in the long run it would help. Reducing the number of foreign players in the English League may be do able quickly, but to affect the national team will take years, as it did with Spain. The current England team will not win a major trophy for the foreseeable future, so now is the time to change.
Nurture the talent we do find instead of rushing them and inevitably damaging another career.