Six + Five rule = Bullshit

Originally Posted by Liverpool fan on the matter

But Bladder doesn`t even attempt to cover his motives. He contends that having an all English final in this year`s Champions League is damaging. Strangely, he didn`t find 2003s all Italian Final a problem, nor 2001s all Spanish final. Well, simple suggestion Sepp, let`s go back to having one team per country competing Europe`s premier competition. Make the Champions League for Champions again. Problem solved. Of course, having the likes of Barcelona, Chelsea, Arsenal and Juventus excluded from next year`s competition would harm your profit margins, but hey, you`ve got the interests of football at your heart here haven`t you? Oh I see, its international football that also concerns you so deeply. (Another of your money spinning cash cows to be milked). Maybe if you didn`t insist on packing out the international calendar with so many useless (but money spinning) friendlies, players would actually get their desire for representing their country back and actually play like they give a toss. If you could unwrap your sweaty palms from around the udders for a second, you might see a generation of footballers who retire early from international football, under perform in tournaments due to burn out.

Still I don`t see how the 6+5 ruling will benefit international teams. Sure, more homegrown players will get a chance, but if they`re not good enough to break into their teams without this institutionally prejudice golden handshake, aren`t we just packing teams with average or below par players at the expense of quality? Brilliant, international managers will have more crap players to choose from. How does this enhance the quality of your product Mr. Bladder? What it does do is denigrate the quality of domestic competition greatly, to the point that people will not continue to line your pockets by paying extortionate sums to watch mediocre football. This 'throw s**t at a wall and see how much sticks` policy simply cannot work. It will not even the playing field with regards to domestic competition either, if anything it will widen the gap. If this ruling goes through, then Chelsea, ourselves, United and Arsenal will simply buy up the Youngs, Agbonlohors and Richards` of this world and stockpile them. With the price of indigenous players massively inflated, these clubs will not be able to afford even the most average replacements. So the quality of the overall league goes down and the megabucks "big four" widen the chasm.

Let me posit a scenario for you. Let us say this ruling was in in 2003. Arsène Wenger has to tell Cesc Fabregas, "you`re an excellent player, but I cannot play you. So Steve Sidwell will play and I will sell you back to Barcelona." Right, so Sidwell gets handed a place in the team, he enjoys an unmerited run and gets picked for England. Excellent. England play Spain, where Steve Sidwell comes up against Cesc Fabregas in the centre of midfield. Now, at some point, for the national side to prosper, Steve Sidwell has to outshine Fabregas and England have to overcome their foreign counterparts. How does the 6+5 rule help? Eventually, Fabregas` superior ability will supersede Sidwell`s and the whole exercise will have been a waste of time. By handing them guaranteed places in the starting line up, without the player having to work remotely hard or compete, where is the incentive for Sidwell to improve and make strides as a player. If I knew that, upon leaving school, I would be guaranteed a cushy job irregardless of my qualifications or ability, I would not bother going to get a degree or even try and build up my CV.