Let's hope it happens !

Beckenbauer bemoans the lack of local players in certain teams and demands a end of those mercenaries ruining football

his demand:

out of 11 players on the pitch, there should be at least 6 who are eligible for the national team of the league

curiously, in Germany this would also improve the quality of the Bundesliga

will it get past those EU employment rules though ?

I doubt it

http://www.sport1.de/de/sport/artikel_552351.html

Everyone seems to have it in for Arsenal it seems.

Mr Wenger will disagree - http://europeanboard.ephpbb.com/viewtopic.forum?t=3767

I agree with it, there should be a certain amount players of the country that they are playing in, playing for a team! It totally ruins the point of that team coming from that country! It's not only with Arsenal. Inter also only have a few Italians! Toldo, Grosso, Materazzi! And Toldo doesn't play as much so there are two! I don't care if they are called Internazionale, there should at least be 5 Italians in that team! Other wise i don't think you can consider them an Italian team, or Arsenal an English team. Villareal are practically Argentinian! I mean last season in the C.L match between Arsenal and Real Madrid, there was one Englishmen on the pitch and he was playign for Real.... Beckham! And aren't Porto like all Brazilian aswell?
I think that this rule should be inforced into every league!

It's clearly illegal under EU law.

I am disappointed that those of you in other countries are not such good europeans as we are in the UK.

I don't think this is the case. *Fairly sure*

I think UEFA will be implementing a home-grown system where a number of squad members need to have brought through by the club. The trick here is that they don't need to be from the country of origin.

For example Arsenal could classify Cesc, Djourou, Senderos, Bendtner and Lupoli as homegrown talents despite not being born here or schooled here.

A bit strange, but if there is a loophole exploit it.....

That is workable but will not achieve the stated objective of having players who are eligible for the national team (unless they ignore their 'true'nationality and qualify on grounds of residency).

How strange that Beckenbauer should suggest something that would favour Bayern

Won't bother Germany too much as pretty much EVERYONE is eligible for their nationality it seems

I do not think it would be advisable. It would be clearly against EU regulations, which are there to favour the workers, not the employers, and their freedom to take up work in any EU country of their choice. It may be good for Germany, since they have a large population, but it would certainly not favour many other, smaller countries, where the pool of players to chose from is so much smaller.

There is also not a God-given right for German players to play in the Bundesliga, just because they are German. If they are good enough, fair enough, but if not, they will have to play in lower leagues or adapt their wage demands.

I must say, something may be done about the rules regarding non-EU players. I mean, there is in principle a limit, but then how many Brazilians actually play in RM or Barça? Most of them are naturalized.

Tweedledum wrote:Won't bother Germany too much as pretty much EVERYONE is eligible for their nationality it seems

My collegues are wondering why I'm suddenly laughing out loud right now

who can deny the Germans some Lebensraum? After all, they are quite big and there's more than 80 million of them...

Surely they could take a leaf out of the Nederlanders book and reclaim the Baltic?

Roger_Hunt wrote:Surely they could take a leaf out of the Nederlanders book and reclaim the Baltic?

We're lucky : they're allergic to us, so they won't come anywhere near