YoG No. 37 – Ian Harte and that Old “Foreign” Chestnut

Yes indeed let’s talk about the number of foreign players in the English Premier League and across the elite leagues of Europe. Let’s jump right in there. But I want to talk about this issue properly – And when I say ‘foreign’ in relation to England, just to avoid the obvious and boring riposte, I mean beyond the traditional sources for English football, i.e. the UK and Ireland. Anyone who equates the current Liverpool team where only 4 of the 15 players who have started more than 10 of the 26 Premier League games are from England, with the one from the 80’s with 4 Irish internationals, a few Scots and about the same number of English as today, is being frankly ridiculous. As such, and in my view, Ian Harte’s use of the term “foreigner” last week was perfectly acceptable. Those who wanted to know what he meant knew what he meant. And he has a point. His point may be anachronistic in today’s global world; it may hark back to a ‘football’ that no longer exists; and at its worst plays into the hands of the little Englander and petty Brexiteer too readily. But it is a point that should be explored properly, mainly now because it is one which is no longer the exclusive preserve of the Mersons and Harry Redknapps of this world and I want to talk about it, get your feedback, and I have nothing in common with those blinkered old men.

Let’s start by asking the question – What is football for? If it’s entertainment, why do we show up knowing a match will be crap? If it’s escapism, why does it exist everywhere we turn? If it’s about community, why do we support foreign teams? If it’s about sporting spirit, why do we turn a blind eye to our own teams cheating? The truth is that football is about all of these things, and moreover it’s about the combination of these things which adds up to a whole far, far greater than the sum of its parts. But where does it come from; what is the true heart and soul of the game? And as someone on the cusp of 40, having lived through the pre-Sky era all the way to today’s Oligarch era, I think I have a decent understanding of what’s good and what’s not. (Playing ‘Seven Nation Army’ after a goal is scored is an abhorrent abuse of the crowds right and power to lift a team, for example.) And in my view, I still feel that football, even at the highest levels, is about community. Despite attempts which have been made in the past, and I’m sure will be made again in the future, a club still plays its home games in its home stadium, even if they have moved location at some point in their history. Bricks and mortar are required. The road from Milltown to Tallaght was a very rocky one indeed for Shamrock Rovers, but they are rooted there today. Liverpool treated some neighbours very, very badly over the years, but it was because they had plans to expand locally and not to merely disappear to the nearest motorway junction to build a new stadium free from restrictions. Many clubs have taken the latter route and have lost out on matchday experience as a result. But they’ve almost all stayed in their cities, towns and suburbs. Football, therefore, by necessity is about place, and moreover a particular place – your home ground.

And in Ireland, we should have that understanding better than most. Every weekend throughout the year the GAA and their incessant media ram this down our throats, usually by way of comparison to the English Premier League (they never reference the massive community aspect and voluntarism of Irish soccer, across the board from those giving support to schoolboy clubs every week all the way up to those helping stage Champions League qualifiers, ah no sure that wouldn’t suit the agenda). But the first half of what they say is usually true. The rigidity, almost dictatorial nature, of the GAA in this regard is not something I would ever contemplate for soccer, but there is some merit in at least basing it on such structures.

Football was of course based on similar structures from the outset. The most famous expression of this was Celtic’s 1967 European Cup winning team all being born within 30 miles of Parkhead. That was not a shocking statistic then. As a child in the 1980’s, it raised an eyebrow slightly when I first heard it, mainly because I wondered why no Irish or English played for them. Today, for any club in Europe, from Real Madrid to Dundalk, such a scenario would be simply ludicrous. The world has become so much smaller in the 50 years since; globalisation has taken a firm hold as the driving force of business, sport, culture and in pushing environmental concerns to the background and there is no escape from this.

To focus on the clubs, however, is to miss the most important point. While the clubs were the focus of their communities and where the best players in the area ended up, with a few imports from other regions and the odd other country – most significantly being the influx of Irish players to England particularly from the 1950’s – it was each national team which was the ultimate expression of community. The best players from each club were brought together to form an XI to represent the country. And most of these players were playing in the best teams in that country. Amsterdam was Ajax. Ajax, Feyenoord and PSV together were Holland, providing 17 of the 22 Dutch players for the 1974 World Cup; Johan Cruyff could be added to that list as he had moved to Barcelona by then.

In most cases more than 3 clubs were represented, as most countries did not have the same “Big 3” as the Dutch did and still do, but there was always a spine of top clubs represented, with those players usually being among the best at those clubs. This cannot be said now. How many of the best 3 players at top English clubs today are from Britain and Ireland? City – Sterling? United – none. Chelsea – none. Liverpool – none. Arsenal – ah we’ll give Aaron Ramsey a shot. Spurs – Kane and Alli, with Eriksen, Vertonghen and Lloris fighting for the final spot along perhaps with Dier.

So what I hear you say. The argument about foreigners in all leagues, but especially the English leagues, can only count if there is a problem. So what is the problem with the above. Does it matter that Real Madrid and AC Milan are no longer bastions of Spanish and Italian footballing excellence? Who cares if half today’s Ajax squad are not Dutch? It’s the way of the world. Look around your workplace and look around your streets. Football is merely reflecting that and there is no way that I believe economic migration is not beneficial for destination countries, in the same way that the Premier League is a much higher quality league than Division One was in 1984, when Liverpool won their 4th, and England’s 7th, European Cup in 8 seasons.

But life is not like sport. There is no international competition for the best accountants, software developers, architects or plumbers. There is no Roofing World Cup as far as I know, and there is no European Auditing Championships, at which Ireland as a nation must compete (thank Christ). There isn’t even a local league. Sport is different. The IRFU make absolutely no bones about this when a player sets sail to foreign shores. Forget about them. On the other hand, Rugby does make quite the mockery of international eligibility even when compared to the FIFA Granny Rule, but the point is that few bat an eyelid at these transboundary transgressions in that code and the GAA don’t have to worry about it at all.

And that is the point. It’s not a numbers game. This is not a Proper Football Man argument Jeff and it’s not a backwards approach to the global game. It’s about questioning the status quo. And beyond that it’s about questioning the motives behind the status quo. Because football today may be about all of those things mentioned earlier, but it is of course, for those with all the power, all about money.

International economic migration patterns ebb and flow. Ireland can attest to that with massive changes in my lifetime, even over the last decade and a half. Economic fortunes rise and fall and a country’s attractiveness with it. We accept this as it has been the way of humanity since we first started to migrate several millennia ago. Football is different. It appears to be immune to normal economics, particularly with so many clubs no longer requiring to be financially viable in order to be successful, as billionaires merely pump more cash in. They do not give a flying one about the working classes of Moss Side and Merseyside. They are American Vultures who live off Government bailouts; the broken backs of their own thoroughly degraded underclass; and the loose labour laws of parts of Central America and Asia, or they are Middle Eastern oligarchs with all that entails in terms of business practice, human rights and how they view 50% of the world’s population.

They want this. They want the 1% to be even smaller. They have taken English football and turned it into a playground for the global elite and they have rendered the connection between the corporate-box stands and the surrounding terraced houses more and more tenuous. This isn’t about there being too many foreign footballers or foreign managers and how it’s too hard for a lad from Drogheda to get to the top 4 anymore. This is about the game itself. How the hell do you raise your son or daughter to love a game that takes so much for so little in return? Yes I want to see players like Steve Finnan and Jamie Carragher raising the European Cup again. I want to see another Roy Keane in my lifetime, like I saw Ronnie Whelan and Liam Brady before him. That’s not too much to ask. That’s not unreasonable. But as long as the bubble stays inflated, and as long as, unlike any other sector of the economy, European elite football, remains driven solely by money unfettered by normal rules of finance, we will not see it again. And in my view that means we are staring into an abyss right now and it’s very very difficult to see how we can pull back. The English league we grew up watching, and the one which was an intrinsic part of the development of all of our great Irish international players is completely dead. What will replace it? If the English FA cannot get it to function for their own failing international team, what hope is there for Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. The influx of players and managers from outside Britain and Ireland to England, or of foreign talent to any league in Europe, is not a cause of any problems in the game. It is merely a symptom of the same trend we see in economies across the world in all sectors – Globalisation and agglomeration. Money brings talent; talent brings success; success brings more money, and the cycle which began in earnest in the late 1990’s feeds itself and has us where we are today. It is time to acknowledge this.

The little Englanders of the game can moan all they want but the reason we have Pep on top of the table with Ederson in his goal, and not Mark Hughes with Joe Hart, is the same reason these people have jobs and yet another media outlet for their ill-informed thoughts – Money. And money voluntarily handed over to them in large numbers by the poorest in society.

I don’t know what the solution is, but I’m fairly certain that this is a part of it.