Domestic and Foreign – a brief case study of La Liga, Serie
A, Bundesliga and Premier League.
Are foreign players good for a national league? A question often asked and with Sepp
Blatter’s; FIFA’s president; comments about an introduction of quotas, a failry
hot topic.
What is the actual picture?
How many foreign players are in the top four European Leagues? Do successful teams have more foreign
players?
Serie A
Team Domestic Foreign UEFA CUP
Final / Domestic Title / CL Final Coppa Italia Final
Inter 5 23 1 2 4
Juventus 15 10 4 2 2
Roma 13 14 1 4
Milan 13 16 2 1
Fiorentina 18 13 3
Torino 20 6 2
Lazio 16 13 1 3
Napoli 17 8
Sampdoria 26 6
Atalanta 17 7 1
Udinese 15 15
Genoa 15 10
Cagliari 21 5
Palermo 19 6
Parma 25 7 1 3
Livorno 17 8
Catania 17 8
Empoli 24 2
Reggina 13 10
Siena 20 12
TOTAL 346 (64 %) 197 (36%)
Premier League
Team Domestic (Eng. only) Foreign UEFA
CUP final / Domestic
Title / CL Final / FA Cup final
Arsenal 6 25 1 3 1 5
Aston
Villa 12 10
Birmingham City 10 17
Blackburn Rovers 5 25
Bolton Wanderers 8 23
Chelsea 8 17 2 3
Derby
County 17 15
Everton 10 17
Fulham 9 23
Liverpool 11 22 1 2 2
Manchester City 8 19
Manchester Utd 14 17 6 1 2
Middlesbrough 18 12 1 1
Newcastle Utd 9 17
Portsmouth 8 15
Reading 15 21
Sunderland 11 23
Tott.
Hotspur 14 17
West Ham Utd 15 13 1
Wigan Athletic 13 15
TOTAL 221 (37 %) 363 (63%)
La Liga
Team Domestic Foreign UEFA CUP final / Domestic Title / CL Final / Copa del Rey
final
Almeria 17 6
Athletic
Bilbao 24 1
Atletico
Madrid 11 13
Barcelona 10 15 1 4 1 2
Real
Betis 13 11 1
Depotivo 17 8 1 1
Espanyol 17 7 2
Getafe 16 9
Levante 11 14
Mallorca 14 10 1
Murcia 16 7
Osasuna 17 7 1
Racing
Sant. 18 7
Real
Madrid 8 17 4 3
Recreativo 14 10 1
Sevilla 5 19 2 1
Valencia 17 7 1 2 2 1
Valladolid 20 5
Villarreal 10 15
Real
Zaragoza 15 8 3
TOTAL 280 (59 %) 196 (41%)
Bundesliga
Team Domestic Foreign UEFA CUP
final / Domestic Title / CL Final / German Cup
final
Germany
–Energie Cottbus – 18th place in Bundesliga
Team with the least foreign players:-
Italy
– Empoli - 18th in Serie A
England
– Middlebrough – 15th in the Premier League
Spain –
Athletic Bilbao
– 17th in La Liga
Germany
– Karlsruher – 2nd place in Bundesliga
Conclusions from the figures:-
The Premier League has the most foreign players with 63%.
Serie A has the most domestic players with 64%
The trend towards recruiting foreign players has been
upwards in the past ten years.
The most successful clubs within their respective domestic
Leagues typically have a high proportion of foreign players.
A high proportion of foreign players at a club are not indicative
of success.
Foreign managers tend to buy more foreign players than there
domestic counterparts. (Although
domestic v foreign managers is another topic unto itself).
Three facts stand out:-
Quality players (regardless of nationality win
trophies).
Foreign players are no guarantee of success.
The influx of foreign players roughly matches the influx of
capital into football.
Sepp Blatter:-
Quotas are ludicrous; Bosman has shown that the highest EU
courts will not allow such barriers to fair and free trade. This move is taking on the shape of an
exercise in power between national interests and club interests.
My final words:-
Football is a global multi billion Dollar/Pound/Euro
industry; its popularity and financial health are better than at any time in
history; for clubs at the top level for sure.
Increasingly the gulf between the top national division and the rest of
the league is widening.
A long term view must be held for the future of football as
we know it to be saved. National
Associations need to ensure that the cash filters down to the foundations of
football in the home country. Youth
development, local leagues the grass roots of football is important to the
game.
The National Associations also need to get the balance of
club v country right; too much either way and something will suffer.
Do you really want a European Super League with the same
clubs competing with little or no chance of the participants changing. Two examples spring to mind of sports tearing
themselves apart for money, darts and boxing.
In other industries the governing bodies or government or
umbrella organizations protect national interest – why should this be different
in football – national interst should be in seeing a healthy and vibrant youth
development system which seeks to find and develop English talent for domestic
and foreign consumption.
I love the foreign invasion, seeing Zola, Di Canio, Petit,
Cantona, Weah, Crespo, Schechenko, Van Basten, Riikjard, Gullit, Solano and all
the imports into Serie A and the Premier League has increased my viewing
pleasure; long may it continue; just apply a bit of common sense.
Appecndix:-
I used Wikipedia, which I know is not perfect, but it
provides a pretty sound resource for gathering the info I have used, ten
percent of clubs were cross referenced with their own web pages and the
differences were negligible.
I’m using my experience of English Football to paint a
broader picture; any insights on particular differences in the way the other
FA’s operate (whether better or worse then the FA) would be welcome.
I’ve been simplistic in making a simple distinction between
foreign and domestic, for individual clubs a note of where the foreign players
are from would add depth but for my study I didn’t think it was necessary.
I have :
Toldo - GK
Orlandoni - GK
Alfonso - GK
Bolzoni - MF he's come up from their Youth System and so far has only had 20 mins as a sub against PSV - no Serie A starts but he's only 18.
Materazzi - MF and ex blue
craigy_f
The moment that Sepp Blatter open his mouth one knows there's bound to be trouble. What'll he think of next by way of and how many indigenous and foreign players a team is allowed to have. And if UEFA falls into line with what he's calling for there will be problems all around for many of the teams within Europe.
tophatal - ta
technically England Scotland Wales and Northern Ireland (plus the odds and ends) are one country (they compete as GBR in the Olympics) so how would FIFA get around that, I think it's history more than any legal imperitave that separates the home nations for football.
You have FIFA, UEFA, CONMEBOL etc then you have the FA, Scottish FA etc, then the Premier League, the Championship etc. then you have clubs/owners and mutiply that across the world and you have a lot of different layers and organizations to contend with.
The World Club Championship might actually have three referees (two to monitor goal line incidents) as a trail this year???
THey separated players from the four UK countries in the early ninities in terms of eligibility criteria for European competition. Around about 1991 to 1995 I think.
craigy_f
It's ridiculous for Blatter to be pontificating like this. He ought to be dealing with real issues that are facing the game at the moment. Insomuch as he'd done somewhat of a fine job he ought to either deal with the real problems and stop coming off like an a politician , which he's not. The game is still rife with drug abusers and we've still got that little problem with which they're not actually treating seriously as far as I'm concerned. And that's the one of racsim not only on the field but off it also by way of the behavior of the fans. As and when they've dealt with that issue adequately then I'll be prepeared to listen to something poignant coming out of his damn mouth.
