Uefa Should Sort Out Euro Footie........

[Lord Bracknell]

How about this for an idea?

Players who want to play for England should pay to do so.

Charges would range from £5,000 (for a walk-on part in the second half of a friendly against Iceland) up to £100,000 for selection for the first team for Euro 2008. If you're on the winning team, you get your money back (plus a 50 per cent bonus).

It might mean dropping Beckham from the squad. But at least we'd get players who wanted to be there.

 

[saafend_seagull]

lampard has played 70 games this season for club and country or something

 

[London Calling]

This is a player who used to catch the bus to play at Molineux alongside the fans.

Too much money in football nowadays.

Not helped by Sven's £3-4 million contract. Isn't the Czech bloke on £46000 a year!



LC

 

[West Hoathly Seagull]

To me the rot started when Division One was replaced by the Premiership. As I said somewhere else, the money used to be divided 50% to the First Division, 25% Second Division, and 12.5% to the other two divisions. Once the Premiership came along, and remember it was the FA who first thought it up, they took the lot, immediately putting clubs like ourselves at risk. Although the EU's labour laws are a good thing in that they allow you or me to work in Tallinn or Barcelona and vice versa, they stopped the three foreigners per side rule which used to apply, meaning that the likes of Chelsea no longer needed to develop their own players. The real factor in downgrading players' motivation has been the Champions' League. It seems totally daft to me that the fourth side gets into the Champions' League, while in some countries the champions do not get automatic entry, and then sides that get knocked out get into the UEFA Cup. This has totally downgraded the European Cup, which used to be the greatest inter-country cup competition in the world. It has also undermined our dear old FA Cup, which most of our leading sides no longer seem to be that bothered with. I also cannot stand the "oh well, we haven't won the Championship, but at least we've got into the Champions' League" mentality. I don't think most of the fans of these clubs think this, but it certainly seems to be the case with the management. I think this is one of the reasons I am glad to support the Albion. OK, so we are never going to win these competitions, but what we do win, we really appreciate. I think this has also affected the England team. I don't know about tiredness, but they don't seem as motivated as before. Look also at the Brazil game in 2002. Therer are a few honourable exceptions, such as Lampard and Owen.

 

[Spiros]

Four of the biggest underachievers at Euro 2004 were Beckham, Raul, Figo and (despite his last gasp goals against us) Zidane. Seems funny that they all play for Real Madrid. I'm sure it's just a coincidence....