Do you like football or soccer? Yes me too. I like observing football rather than playing it. There are something interesting in these 2019 UEFA Champions League (UCL) and UEFA Europa League (UEL) final matches. It would be all English final or English derby finals because Liverpool is going to meet Tottenham Hotspurs at UCL and Chelsea is going to meet Arsenal at UEL. Maybe we are not surprised if we see English clubs playing in the final match at the highest football championship, but the different is now they have more young English local players in their own English club. And it also effected their National team. We can see at Fifa World Cup 2018 in Russia, The Three Lions squad reached the semi final with their young players. How can it happened? Meanwhile we know that England National Team was not so good around 2008 (even they did not qualified to Euro Austria-Switzerland final round) until 2016.
I think it's because of 'home grown' regulation. Football Federation of England or The Football Association (FA) adapted this regulation from UEFA which has imposed this system since at 2008-2009. Each club which is compete in a league should register at least 8 home grown players. Some people say that home grown is similar to English nationality player and non-home grown is foreign player. The fact is not. Home grown player is a player who is at least 21 years old and already spent 3 season within English League or he is an alumni from football academy. Cesc Fabregas who is Spanish, belong to this Home Grown category because he had been playing for Arsenal since he was 16 years old at 2003 until 21 years old at 2005. The team whether they want it or not should allocate 8 home grown players and again it will encourage English local player in quota. Because in fact maybe more than English players in a local English football academy rather that foreign players it self in ages between 16-21. For this final stage, Chelsea has 3 English local players in their starting eleven, Tottenham and Liverpool 4 players. Only Arsenal has only 1 player.
FA did not state directly to limit foreign players in every club, but they made s strategy by using 'Home Grown' players term and obliged each team to have at least 8 home grown players. The implication of this regulation also appeared in FIFA World Cup 2018 in Russia where England could reach the fourth place at the semi final stage with their young players. Honestly I am not fan of England National Team. I prefer especially The Netherlands National Team because Netherlands is like a gateway for Indonesian in Europe seeing that historical ties in the past. There were notable Indonesian decent player in Dutch National Team when they got runner up at FIFA World Cup 2010 in South Africa such as Giovanni van Bronckhorst and John Heitinga. But I have to be objective and I'm sure it as an awakening of England National Team and they can speak a lot and louder at Euro 2020 or even in FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar. Or maybe they will repeat a victory after 36 years ago at 1986 and get their second World Cup trophy at 2022? Let's see together!
 |
| England National Squad at FIFA World CUP 2018 (source: independent.co.uk) |
No comments:
Post a Comment