Mourinho’s Notebook – September 19
They’re Taking All Our Jobs!
The English FA is preparing a few new regulations that will slash the number of non-European Union imports to the Premier League and its lower tiers. The proposal could see the number of foreign continent imports will be reduced by 50% with an overhaul of the visa system and, by extension, the appeal system. By limiting the ‘mediocre’ foreign talent, the idea is that the local lads will get the chance to shine. This could be put in place as early as next season.
The Proposal:
- Football League clubs will be banned from signing non-EU players completely.
- Premier League clubs cannot send them out on loan.
- Only players from the top 50 FIFA-ranked nations can be signed unless the transfer fee meets a pre-determined figure (probably £10m).
- The appeals system (in which 80% are currently successful) will be tightened up.
122 overseas players from beyond the confines of Europe were granted UK visas between 2009 and 2013, with 23 of them in the Football League. Obviously they are the ones who would lose out the most.
The thing here is that New Zealand, of course, is a non-EU nation. Which is a spanner in the works. However it probably wouldn’t be an issue for most of you budding footy players or those of you that just wanna see kiwis on the big stage. That’s because of the fact that most of us are actually eligible for Dual British citizenship. If a parent or grandparent was born in Blighty, you should be OK. In fact it doesn’t even have to be Blighty, as it’s an EU restriction. So Brazilians with Portuguese familial connections can go via that route or possibly a New Zealander who spent many formative years in Denmark.
Watch Yo’self
FIFA’s ethics committee (HA!) has decided that federation officials will have to return the NZ$33,000 Parmigiani watches that were handed out to a representative of each of the 32 competing nations at the World Cup by the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF). 28 FIFA executives and a representative of each of the 10 South American Member Associations also got one as a part of a gift bag (65 in total – as 5 non-Brazilian South American teams were also competing). The Swiss watches have been determined as too valuable to be accepted as gifts and will need to be returned by October 24 or the hammer will fall. FA chairman Greg Dyke reckons he had set the watch aside to donate to charity, having no idea of its value. The CBF say they only paid NZ$10,700 for each watch but an independent valuation showed them to be worth a lot more than that.
Statement Excerpts:
The FCE plainly prohibits such gifts. Football officials may not offer or accept gifts that have more than "symbolic or trivial value."
If in doubt, gifts shall not be offered or accepted.
Accordingly, CBF should not have offered the watches, and those who received gift bags should have promptly checked whether the items inside were appropriate and, upon discovering the watch, either returned it or… reported the matter to the Investigatory Chamber.
In Other Words:
Stuff Rio Ferdinand’s Been Saying
Rio may have taken a step down (or ten) by moving to QPR this season after Manchester United chose not to offer a new contract, but he’s making up for his diminishing on-field relevance by refusing to shut up off of it. He’s serialising his autobiography (#2Sides) in The Sun, which they won’t let us read without a subscription (do they even know how the internet works?). Luckily everyone else is re-reporting it, so here are some ‘bombshells’:
- David Moyes was negative in his tactics and it was ‘embarrassing’.
- Moyes also banned the team from their traditional chip feed the night before games. Though Giggsy brought them back in his short spell.
- Wayne Rooney used to go through cellphones “like sweets” as he smashed them on concrete in anger or frustration. But he’s much calmer these days.
- Fabio Capello brought in a “prison-camp mentality” to the England national team.
- He also doesn’t like Roy Hodgson.
- But Sir Alex Ferguson was a “genius”.
- Rio was told he was dropped for the Bayern Munich game in the Champions League in front of the whole team, which he called his worst moment at the club.
- Fergie nearly fined him for not wearing the Kick It Out t-shirt in the aftermath of the John Terry racism row… until Fergie’s wife convinced him not to.
- On that, he still hasn’t talked to Terry and considers him “impossible to forgive”.
- Rio had trouble fraternising with any Chelsea players on international duty.
- He also called a young player a baby after he apparently cried after being dropped by David Moyes.
Managers Sacked This Week:
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer – Cardiff City
Felix Magath – Fulham
Hanging On By A Thread
Alan Pardew – Newcastle United