It's something no decent person should have to face first thing in the morning: a picture of Sepp Blatter staring out at you from your newspaper. Talk about a bad start to your day...
And why was he taking up valuable column inches on this particular occasion? Because the English FA (shock horror) have dared to appoint a head coach for its national team that isn't English. You've got to hand it to him - he's as sharp as a tack when it comes to this sort of thing.
Did no-one tell him about Sven? Oh well, never mind. Anyway, Von Blatter of Switzerland has hauled out his trusty old soapbox once again and proclaimed to anyone that'll listen that it's "a little surprising that the motherland of football has ignored a sacrosanct law or belief that the national team manager should be from the same country as the players."
And fair enough to. Next time I see Owen Hargreaves, I'll ask him if there are any decent managers in Canada that might be interested in being a future head of the England team.
He went on to say: "In fact, most of the best teams have a coach from their own country." As I didn't believe him for a moment, I thought I'd check this out to see if he was right. To my amazement, he was. Out of FIFA's top 20 highest-ranked teams, only four have a foreign manager, one of which is Fabio Capello of England, the others being Portugal's Luiz Felipe Scolari (Brazil), Greece's Otto Rehhagel (Germany) and Nigeria's Berti Vogts (Germany).
But that's about all Sepp Blatter is right about. It may have been the case once upon a time that a national team should have a manager from the same country, but that's no longer the case. What remains the same is the desire by a great many international football associations (and their fans) to see their team do well, play better and perhaps even win something.
We're not living in the 1950's anymore. If there's a coach out there that can bring a change in fortunes to a team and bring a smile back to the faces of the supporters, who the hell cares? We're not so precious when it comes to buying our cars. If we were, we British would still be driving around in Austin Allegros and Morris Marinas.
So let's just run this past you one more time, Sepp old son. It's an open market out there. A country can choose who it likes to be its head coach, and that's been the case for a long time now, so can you please remember that you're supposed to be taking the game forward into a modern era and shut up now?
Blatter is an apt name, because surely he's taking a piss. I'm sure he'd much rather have Harry "Bung-Free since 2003" Redknapp. England would soar to new heights!
ReplyDeleteFunnily enough, I don't think he'd be the worst choice as England manager. Not the best, certainly, but his co-ordination of the team would be quite good, I feel.
ReplyDeleteHarry has been amazing at snatching respectability from the jaws of mediocrity. Unfortunatly, he cannot seem to get anything out his young english players. Taylor and Nugent should more prominant in the English pool, but can't seem to get a game under Harry.
ReplyDeleteI reckon Blatter just enjoys throwing his weight around. Lets faces it, he's got enough.
ReplyDeleteForeign coaches are pretty much the only thing that gives "new" footballing nations a chance against their more experienced counterparts.
ReplyDeleteCase in point: would Iraq ever have won the AFC without Jorvan Vieira?
While I understand where Sepp Blatter is coming from, I agree with the rest of you in saying that his opinion on this matter is a little archaic, and would just lead to the status quo. If we want international competition to become a little more interesting (as in the case of the Iraqis, or any of the up-and-coming African teams), international coaches are almost a must.