[Zwanzigoetzel]

DFB reform. Well, is the DFB structure really the culprit of Germans NT's problems like many are saying?

Many of Klinsmann's supporters point out that he is finally tackling the deep rooted rotten infrastructure issues of the German Soccer Association. He kicked out some well known figures including Sepp Maier and other well known celebrities, the chief scout is Swiss, the fitness trainer American and we almost would have had a hockey coach as the sports director. Is all that supposed to help us to have a better nationalteam in the long run?

Didn't the current structure work just fine? We made it to the WC final 7 times and won 3 of them, within the last 30 years we always at least made it to the quarterfinals of the WC, we made it to the Euro final 5 times and won 3 of them.

I don't want to say that there is no room for some changes and improvement in the structure, but despite pissing people off, I'm still trying to figure out what Klinsmann is trying to accomplish or how all of this is supposed to help our NT.

Here is what I think should be the major focus point to have a great national team in the long run. PROMOTE THE YOUTH! About 12 years ago when I was playing in Germany the problem already creeped into the German leagues.We had great talent on our team, including myself. But when we were done with the youth league (A-Youth it is called) they dropped us like hot potatoes and rather spend millions of $$$ to buy players from other foreign countries. We ended up in the third or below non-pro leagues.

The situation now is far worse than 12 years ago. Correct me if I'm wrong but the Bundesliga has about 60% foreign players, more than any other league including the EPL.

So how can you produce a solid NT, if you don't have any German players???

My solution:

- Work at the roots. It starts with the little village teams and goes all the way to Bayern Muenchen. Find the young talents and promote them.

- Reduce the amount of foreign players allowed to play at the professional level. I think 70% German nationals and 30% foreign players is a good ratio.

Now is it Klinsmann's job to worry about all of that? No it is not. His job is to take the most talented players of the Bundesliga and form a great Nationalteam that has the ability to bring home the trophies.

[poorvi]

I agree with you.

There must be lesser number of foreign players. Right now inspite of having many foreign players, the bundesliga teams are doing very poorly in the champions league.None of the big footballing nations like Brazil, Argentina, Italy, Holland have many of their starters playing in the Bundesliga.There are atleast 5 starters for Brazil in Serie A, but only 1 starter in Bundesliga. Its mainly players from countires whose teams are relatively weaker, who ply their trade in the bundesliga. German youth system was always weak, as compared to the French or English or Dutch youth systems. Even when the senior side used to be world class, the youth teams rarely made a mark in u-21, u-19 tournaments.

[Alex_K]

Originally Posted by poorvi

German youth system was always weak, as compared to the French or English or Dutch youth systems. Even when the senior side used to be world class, the youth teams rarely made a mark in u-21, u-19 tournaments.

If you want to use youth tournaments as a measurement of succcess:

Neither England or the Netherlands ever reached a World Youth Cup final (U-20 or U-16/17), Germany reached 3.

In the European championships (U-23/U-21, U-18/U-19, U-16/U-17) England and Germany have won 3 trophies each. The Netherlands have never won an European trophy as well.

[meininki]

Originally Posted by Zwanzigoetzel

Here is what I think should be the major focus point to have a great national team in the long run. PROMOTE THE YOUTH! About 12 years ago when I was playing in Germany the problem already creeped into the German leagues.We had great talent on our team, including myself. But when we were done with the youth league (A-Youth it is called) they dropped us like hot potatoes and rather spend millions of $$$ to buy players from other foreign countries. We ended up in the third or below non-pro leagues.

The situation now is far worse than 12 years ago. Correct me if I'm wrong but the Bundesliga has about 60% foreign players, more than any other league including the EPL.

You're absolutely right. Actually I was at a panel discussion with Hannes Löhr last night and he talked a little about that problem.
When he was still U21 coach, Gehrhard Mayer-Vorfelder (now DFB president, then president of VfB Stuttgart) came to him and said something had to be done for young German players. Löhr then asked him, whether he knew how many Germans had played for Stuttgart in the last match. Mayer-Vorfelder didn't know, Löhr told him the answer was two (one was the keeper)...
Only when Stuttgart were facing bankruptcy they started giving young players a chance.

Btw, Köln is the team with the most German players, they usually start about 6-8.

[stefan10]

This is nothing new but the solution is complicated or simply not possible.

We can not just limite the foreign players by law or rule because that would violate european laws.

So the only solution would be a voluntary contract but nobody believs that this will happen. We have to face it football is a huge huge business and clubs coaches etc face a lot of pressure and to buy a foreign palyer is often the easier solution than to hope that the young talents will solve the problem and archive the goals.

There is no doubt that the DFB could establish a better system but as said before where should these young talents play. We have the same problem in the first three clases.

We are not the only ones that have these problems. How many english players play in the best englsih teams. All better and bigger european leagues have more or less the same problems.

[Zwanzigoetzel]

Originally Posted by stefan10

This is nothing new but the solution is complicated or simply not possible.

We can not just limite the foreign players by law or rule because that would violate european laws.

So the only solution would be a voluntary contract but nobody believs that this will happen. We have to face it football is a huge huge business and clubs coaches etc face a lot of pressure and to buy a foreign palyer is often the easier solution than to hope that the young talents will solve the problem and archive the goals.

There is no doubt that the DFB could establish a better system but as said before where should these young talents play. We have the same problem in the first three clases.

We are not the only ones that have these problems. How many english players play in the best englsih teams. All better and bigger european leagues have more or less the same problems.

Well, you are right, more or less all European leagues deal with the same issue. The Bundesliga MORE however. Here some stats:

Bundesliga: Has as of last month 78 players that would be eligible for the German NT.

EPL: 124 are eligible for England's NT

Italian A league: 133 eligible for Italian's NT

Primera Division: 132 for the Spanish NT

So without a doubt it seems a bigger problem in Germany.

[96Squig]

Originally Posted by Zwanzigoetzel

(...)
Primera Division: 132 for the Spanish NT
(...)

If you see at how the Spanish NT performs (and always has performed), Germany ma be going the right way ;-)

Plus, you are awarte of the fact that we have 2 teams less than most other big leagues?

[Bayerntone]

The nationals who opt to play overseas are just a fraction of the total qualified players but they are highly likely to be selected to represent their country.

So the above statistics are very loose indicators, far from conclusive.

[Alex_K]

Originally Posted by Zwanzigoetzel

Bundesliga: Has as of last month 78 players that would be eligible for the German NT.

How did you come to that number? I counted almost 40 players on the rosters of Bayern, HSV and Bremen alone.

["Eisenfuß" Eilts]

Originally Posted by Zwanzigoetzel

The situation now is far worse than 12 years ago. Correct me if I'm wrong but the Bundesliga has about 60% foreign players, more than any other league including the EPL.

So how can you produce a solid NT, if you don't have any German players???

This fact was true till about 5 years ago, here the current data:

Now in the squads of the Bundesliga 43% of the players are foreigners,
in 2.Bundesliga 37%. (source: http://www.bundesliga.de/intern/hilfe/)