It's time to call time on the foreign legions By Alan Sugar

Now that the dust has settled after our disappointing performance in the European Championship, the question remains: How will England ever be able to put out a winning team?

Watching all the games that England were involved in with my friends there was the usual banter, with everybody claiming to be an expert, mostly stating the obvious - like all football fans.

One of the underlying themes which kept coming through was why this or that player was selected and why Kevin Keegan was not picking someone else in this or that position.

The answer was very simple. Keegan's choice of skilled world-class players was limited. He picked the best the English game had to offer.

So why can't we produce more world-class players and give the England manager a greater choice?

It's true to say that 25 years ago you could be watching an international and genuinely ask: Why didn't the manager choose this player, or that one? There was a choice of top talent available.

I know that writing this article is leading with the chin. I guess I'm going to get slated by the so-called pundits who will attack my comments with the usual comment: 'What does he know about football?'

Well, it's true that I have only been involved in the game for nine years. It's true that I was never a player or a manager and I don't pass the acid test of being able to reminisce about those days when I had to travel in the coach up to my knees in muck and bullets, snow, rain and hailstones to the north of England to play.

My comments simply evolve from logical observation over the past few years. What we need to do is to examine the facts.

When I first became involved at Tottenham, English clubs were only allowed to have three foreign players in their line-ups. From a manager's point of view it was Hobson's Choice - the other eight players had to be British.

The glitzy arena of world-class players was Italy, simply because they paid the most money in transfers and salaries. The boardroom banter in those days was: 'He's a good player, I guess he'll be off to Italy soon.'

What has changed is blatantly obvious. The three foreign player rule has gone and now England has become the top paying country in the world. The need to preserve a position in the Premier League has become a panic situation.

Managers have to obtain a quick fix to ensure that their teams are able to compete at the highest level. To do this, they scour the world and pluck ready-made world-class players to slot into their system.

Where we are losing out is that many of the young talented play-ers, who in the past would have been given the opportunity to play, do not see the light of day. Unless a phenomenon, such as David Beck-ham or Michael Owen, uncharacteristically shines through at a young age, they never find themselves in the first-team.

Let's take Tottenham as an example. When I first become involved with Terry Venables, it was commonly known that we had severe financial problems. This constrained Terry from being able to buy lots of players to improve the team's performance quickly.

He was therefore faced with the reality of having to use the players he had available to him - the likes of Sol Campbell and Nick Barmby. And, after Terry, Stephen Carr came in.

The simple fact was we had no money but these young lads were thrown in at the deep end, learned their trade and improved to become top-class players because they were actually put in at the highest level.

In my opinion, it is this which breeds the best players in the world. There is nothing better than real, live experience. You can stand on a training pitch kicking balls all day long, theoretically working on set-pieces and the like, but there is nothing better than learning your trade where it actually counts.

If players are not allowed to do that then the skill levels will remain low. The curse of money has brought about the decline of other powerful footballing nations.

When one country is able to pay more than another for players, you will see their national team's performance go downhill. The simple reason is that their own national players don't get a look in because the managers of the league teams are under pressure to seek the quick fix.

How many foreign players play in Brazil or Romania? - hardly any. The simple fact is those countries cannot afford to pay top stars.

In the case of France, the world champions, the reality is that their league cannot compete in attracting world-class players. The same could be said for Holland.

Even in Italy and Germany, dominant international soccer powers because of the wealth of choice they had from leagues full of domestic players, the money spent on world-class players has started a slide.

Spain, a country passionate about football with giant clubs such as Barcelona and Real Madrid, cannot boast much success in international football for the same reason.

In my opinion the solution is simple. If we can restrict the numbers of foreign players at club level, managers will be forced to use the domestic market. Youngsters will be thrown in and will learn their trade from bitter experience.

As I said, I may be leading with my chin, because I am sure many pundits will point out that Tottenham is full of foreign players. The simple fact is we got sucked in and had to run with the hounds.

We could not sit in isolation as martyrs or pioneers, otherwise we would have been left behind. But if it was forced upon us by legislation, all English teams would be on a level playing field. The old three foreign player rule allowed clubs to introduce top-class talent to excite fans and bring entertainment to the game.

While clubs could have more than three foreigners on their books, they were forced to rotate them by fielding only three per match.

But the relaxation of the three foreign player rule was brought about by the realisation that this was an infringement of EC employment law, highlighted by other events such as the Bosman Ruling.

The problem is deep-rooted and the finger should be pointed at those in charge of our game 10 or 15 years ago. They should have recognised the ramifications of EU employment law and lobbied heavily for football to be excluded.

At present, rules such as Bosman are legally argued on the basis that a football team is no different from a computer company. Free circulation of labour within the EU is the law and any EU citizen is entitled to work anywhere they want and in any EU country they want.

The solution, in my opinion, lies in the hands of the chief executives of the FA and the Premier League. Fortunately we have now got top-class people appointed.

The likes of Richard Scudamore and Adam Crozier are articulate and can see the bigger picture.

Recently, more poison has been thrown into the British game with the award of a #1.6billion television contract.

This will be another nail in the coffin, adding further to the demise of the national team. It is time for the FA and Premier League leaders to take some of that money and spend it on top-notch European employment lawyers to find a way to restrict the numbers of foreign players that clubs can field.

This, together with the excellent behind-the-scenes groundwork of the football academies, whose architect is Howard Wilkinson, could enable us to be real contenders in 2006.

Instead of wasting time and money lobbying for the World Cup to be played in England, we should turn our efforts into lobbying the EU to make the national game what it really stands for. All football teams throughout the country should use English nationals and not foreign players.

The simple question I asked my friends the other day while watching the England-Romania game was: What would have happened if Tottenham had lots of money around at the time we were leaking goals, enabling Terry or Ossie Ardiles to go and spend millions on a centre back. Where would Sol Campbell be today?

Sol is where he is today because he had the opportunity to play every single game at the highest possible level. God forbid that I, as a stupid chairman, should speak on behalf of a player but I think he would be the first to tell you that's when he learned most of his skills.

Before I get bombarded with criticism, I also recognise the ambiguity in my argument of using Stephen Carr as an example. I know he is Irish. I merely use him to demonstrate that it was Hobson's Choice - he was the best we had available to us at the time.

The fact that he was given the opportunity to play week in, week out at the highest level made him into one of the best right backs playing in the Premier League.

There is, of course, one alternative. We could scrap the domestic national set-ups and have a Great Britain team.

At least that would give Kevin Keegan, if he were chosen as the coach, more ammunition with the likes of Ryan Giggs and budding superstars such as Barry Ferguson or any upand-coming Dave Mackays or Denis Laws.

But can you imagine the arguments over who would be in charge of the British FA, with all those blazer-wearing fat cats at the various associations jockeying for position?

To keep the peace, the headquarters and national stadium would have to be on the Isle of Man!

-- Anonymous, June 24, 2000

Answers

and look at the players that went abroad, they became better, now we keep them playing rush rush football for the same salary.

It all too easy to blame all these foreigners for coming in and taking our jobs, but I reckon it's not that straight forward.

-- Anonymous, June 24, 2000

>>>>>As I said, I may be leading with my chin, because I am sure many pundits will point out that Tottenham is full of foreign players. The simple fact is we got sucked in and had to run with the hounds<<<<<

and if you believe that you will believe you can knit fog.....since when did Spurs ever bow down to the pressure of others. Others bow to the pressure of Spurs, ala having their deducted points returned to them a couple of years back.

>>>>>>Recently, more poison has been thrown into the British game with the award of a #1.6billion television contract<<<<<<<

This from the guy who ran Amstrad as a bed partner of Sly TV and who was on the phone to their headquarters from FA Headquaters when the bids had been discussed on a previous occassion and told them what the upper bid was so that they could increase their offer.

Believe and trust this man at your peril......

-- Anonymous, June 24, 2000