Morality in the Premiership

UEFA president Lennart Johanssen, in the middle of reviewing Chelsea and Barcelona's behaviour during Tuesday's Champions League match, has come out and called Chelsea morally wrong in trying to buy championships with primarily foreign players.

"I have to wait until the laws exist and try to come back to the original situation where everybody was happy when we had a balance between home-produced and imported players...And more and more clubs and coaches are doing the same...Is it morally wrong what Chelsea are doing? For me, it is." ( BBC )

It is an interesting problem. Sure, we're tired of Chelsea's maverick behaviour. But on the other hand I am with Arsene Wenger who stands to have his capable hands tied if rule changes ever come through. Here is what he thinks about possible quotas being introduced into the Premiership:

"Football bodies have to care about the level of the game - that does not mean protecting mediocrity...Elite sport is first about quality. I wouldn't like to say I paid £2m for a player as he has the right passport." ( BBC )

Wenger has served as a brilliant example of how to develop young players (wherever they come from). In terms of Johannsen's claim that "everybody was happy", I don't know about that. I don't think England was producing any more or any better domestic players before the Premiership was created and foreign managers and players arrived in droves. If anything, I think that the average English national team player has more skill, more confidence and ambition than ever before. And I think comes from playing in the superior Premiership, under great (often foreign managers) and against great (often foreign players)...