Why a UEFA based Financial Free Play (FFP) scheme would be a much better option for the future of English football.

England, a country that has never won a major footballing tournament since 1966. Is there light end of this long and dark tunnel? The answer is if the this downward trend of neglecting youth development, then yes.

St George’s Park was recently opened back in early October of this year, with The Duke and Duchness of Cambridge doing the honours of officiating it.

It was open for the purpose of football development at all levels of football in the country.An aim that is certainly waiting to be proven right. Time will tell.

In general opinion, football development in the present moment seem to be left on the back burner. Young starlets, who have one or two brilliant games are showered with praise so quickly.

Young players will always be compared to older English clubs who have gone to mark their name like Frank Lampard or even David Beckham. The media and the public do not give them a chance to find their own identities on the field. Instead, they choke them with high expectations to fill up the shoes left behind.

The most recent young English starlet would be Wilfred Zaha, who plays for Crystal Palace. Nevertheless, his playing ability on the pitch has definitely caught the attention of Premier League clubs such as Arsenal, Chelsea and both the Manchester clubs.

The current trend among English clubs, is to buy young players who are placed with heavy price tags by their former clubs who take opportunity to make a quick buck.

Then, the management would certainly reward him with an astronomical salary for his service. This would inevitably boosts his ego and inversely cause the standards on his performances on the pitch to drop. Flashy Ferraris would certainly be his main priority rather than his game.

A proper upbringing would certainly result in continued production of youths who are able to play to play football at the highest level, not just at club level but also on an international scale. Just ask Barcelona and Spain how they do it.

Spain have certainly reap the rewards of youth development. They are currently the defending World Champions and double defending European Champions. Majority of the players who played in those sides were product of Barcelona’s famed academy, La Masia. Specifically, their midfield is lead by of their famous graduates, Xavi and Iniesta who currently play for Barcelona. 

If further action does not take place by English clubs, the development of youth football in England will always be left in the lurch.Economically, it would also result in negative turn overs for the club which will result in long-term financial strains and unnecessary borrowing in order to patch up financial strain caused by dependency on foreign players.

The Premier League instead of coming up with tailor made rules for top-flight clubs should actually encourage clubs to look at the bigger picture. That is development of talent for the future.

It would certainly provide more of a competitive edge to the Premier League. Certainly, the English Premiership is one of the best football league in the word raking millions of pounds week in and week out in terms of gate recipients and also viewership but it can certainly improve even more.

The match between Chelsea and Manchester City saw just only two English players match an appearance in the match. They were Manchester City’s James Milner and Garth Barry.

It’s certainly important that a club who aims to finish with silverware in their cabinet to plan their season ahead before the first game even kick-offs. Foreign players should be purchased with the reason that they can provide experience to the team and the squad so that they can develop the young ones can the improve their game and model their game .

Countries such as Spain, Germany, Brazil, Argentina are much better off than England in term of youth development. There are certainly young bright stars in the England squad currently such as the likes of Welbeck, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Sterling just to name a few who are talented. However, these household names of the future are not enough to do the job.

Caption : How long are England going on to depend on the present England squad?

The country that is home to football, certainly must show the world that it is capable of producing future stars not only on club level but certainly on an international level. When it comes to youth-development, leave out the club rivalry aside and start focusing on the bigger picture that is the survival of English Football.

Mark Gomez

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