So that's why Toon is such a poor squad -- the two token English players per game. Their fault, of course.
It is illegal in the EU to restrict work based upon nationality, at least when "workers" can garner an EU passport: Articles 45-48 state that workers have the right to move freely and work anywhere in the EU, without discrimination on grounds of nationality, subject to exceptions to preserve public policy, security and health. The "home grown" rule is the "workaround" to retain a few English players in the top league. You can be foreign and still be "home grown" (to stay within EU laws) but reality is that most "home grown" are English.
This is the sentiment echoed by the majority of foreign Premier league fans, at least the ones I know. And they are plenty of foreign EPL fans. Most Premier league fans will never visit their team's stadium. Remember that they are tons of fans watching LIVE games all over the world. And the majority of these fans don't care about the number of English players on "Their team". They don't care about the English national team. If they did. theFA probably won't have any issues selling tickets for Wembely Stadium. The English NT gets less popular every year amongst Foreign fans. But the EPL attracts more foreign fans every year. That's my observation. It would be interesting to see how many English National Team kits they sell in America, Asia and Africa, compared to Man Utd, Man City, Chelsea or Arsenal kits. I bet it would be a ridiculous ratio.
I don't care nor does anybody else who supports an EPL team care how many English players are in the EPL or the percentage in the entire league. Most English fans of the EPL I would bet don't even care. The England NT today is a shell of what it once was and it wasn't even great once upon a time.
Honestly in one way I see the rise in diversity as a good thing for the league. I can definitely how some people, especially English, feel a certain way about the decline of English players. but overall I think the diversity is a sign of something good. Being an American and follower of MLS, people often look down on the MLS and whether for good reasons or not, it is a reflection of the quality of the league. Most of the international players we get are either of lower quality, still have a lot of developing to go and using the MLS as a stepping stone, or are past their prime. Look at the history of big international signings in the MLS. Guys like Beckham and now Lampard and Gerrard. All great players, but coming over to the US is a sign they are no longer as good as they used to be. The fact that BPL is drawing so many international players, and especially those of caliber, is a sign that the league is as competitive as anywhere else in the world. Especially in the sport of soccer, where the popularity and competition world wide is so high, the fact that players can be pulled from Serie A to Bundesliga to La Liga to BPL, etc, shows the equal level of competition between and within those leagues.
To be fair the EPL has been shitty this year in terms of clubs, club preformance, quality of matches and compeetivness..
http://www.skysports.com/football/n...ier-league-teams-ranked-for-england-nationals is titled "Premier League teams ranked for England nationals." I added up the minutes played by English players for each club so far in 2016-2017, and 32.33 percent of the all the minutes have been played by English players.
Substantially superior level of play. EPL is a league filled with good foreign players and mediocre/average at best English players. The only reason why many of these English players are considered world-class is because they are playing in a league that is world-class because of the quality of the foreign players in it. Simple example - if Liverpool had won the EPL when Suarez was tearing it up, English press would have highlighted Gerrard as one of the main reasons for Liverpool winning the title but in reality he was the biggest liability in the squad. Or take Wayne Rooney - he is supposedly the white 'Pele', how is that no big club in Europe was ever interested in signing him ever? I have told this before - a level of lot of the foreign talent in the bottom clubs in EPL is on par with the top English talent in the top 4 clubs. The English players playing in the EPL get the chance to play because 1) they are more marketable in England (need the fans to fill the stadiums) 2) dont have visa hassles in signing up players 3) meet home grown quota If you transport the EPL entirely to say Nigeria with all the English and foreign players in it, And if you were to actually watch an EPL game then, you would be surprised to watch one English player play in a game between two teams. And one season after that, the original number which is a third of players being English will drastically reduce to like a tenth. Now, you can make the league 'worse' by having only English players - but that will reduce viewership considerably which in turn will reduce revenue considerably.
Besides, you have the (2nd tier) Championship which is like the 6th biggest league in Europe and full of English players.
Hear hear. You echo my sentiments perfectly. Yet the english media bang on about the English players. It isnt until they crash out of a major tournament do they realise they are nowhere near world class. Sent from my LG-H850 using Tapatalk