Euro 2012 (Football)

[arthursmedley]

Originally Posted by Al Schlageter

To many furiners in the EPL.

Well yes, I think this is part of the reason. The EPL is awash with TV money and teams have buying power which has pushed transfer deals and wages to absurd levels. The richest game in the world was not the Champions League final but a match played a few days before at Wembley. The play-off for the final promotion place to next years EPL. It's worth at least £80 million to the winner.
I think I read a statistic a couple of years ago when TV schedules allowed the whole EPL to play on a single Saturday afternoon; Out of 220 players only 32 were eligible to play for England. At least two teams did not field any English players at all that day. Many teams have poor youth development schemes as they can buy in decent players from abroad as the pool of English talent is over-priced and over-payed which leads us to;

Originally Posted by Bewolf

Dunno. England regulary makes the impression it has 11 primadonnas on the field, not a "team". The talent is there for sure.

Yes, because many English players have been treated as prima donnas since the age of fourteen. Playing well for the team is not as important as ensuring the individuals earning power is maintained.