Value of Foreign Players to the Team Victories - Admission/Application Essay Example

Number] Value of Foreign Players to the Team Victories – the case of English Premier League Introduction The recent wave of rapid technological advancements has brought transformational changes and new trends in every field and aspect of human activities and businesses. With no exception, the sports sector also witnesses some major changes due to the advent of modern means of communication that provides several new options to the players, sponsors and organizers (Magee and Sugden, p 421). Globalization has bestowed the phenomenon of internationalization to many sports and at present it has become a very common practice to hire foreign players in major national leagues. This global migration of the players usually costs very high fee to the organizers however, the foreign players are fervently hired in the teams with the expectation of fostering the trend of team victories (Massarella, p62). The following essay aims to examine the value of international players to the team victories while focusing specifically upon the English Premier League. It is found that the conception of internationalization of players is deeply embedded in the British soccer league because for many years, the foreign players are frequently hired in the team and as the time passes, the ratio of international players is increasing in the EPL players. The essay aims to investigate the evolution of the practice of hiring foreign players in the team and describes the conceptions and theories associated with this trend. The essay illustrates the implications of the described literature and theories in to the English premier league’s traditions of inviting foreign players in the team and their performances after becoming part of EPL. The economic aspect of hiring foreign players is also an important point of focus for this research paper that is covered by describing the amount spent by the English soccer team on the foreign players. It is revealed that the foreign players are commonly hired in the team against high fees because they are expected to gear up the performance level of the team carrying it towards the victory stand. The research paper presents the case study of English premier League with respect to the mounting drift towards the hiring of foreign players. The case study is developed using data and information from secondary documents including research papers, news resources, sports journals and books. The related literature and facts are gathered from these resources and the analysis of acquired information is conducted to reveal the importance and significance of presence of the foreign players in British football team. The entire effort aims to illustrate the practicability of the conceptual framework divulged by different experts and social scientists around the topic and to find the implications of the described concepts and views within the practice of internationalization within English premier League. It is revealed that EPL significantly supports the notion of globalization of football that is clearly evident through recurrent global migration of the soccer players in to the league. Internationalization of Players – Theoretical Perspective Bale and Maguire (1994) published a series of articles on the issue of sports labour migration as an attempt to position the issue as an academic subject. The global migration of players has been witnessed in different sports like basketball, ice hockey and rugby etc; however, it is found that historically football is the major sports where the labour migration is experienced very commonly and consistently. In 1997, David Conn (p96) proposes the term “football business” to refer the increasing trend of hiring international players in soccer team with the intention to gain commercial revenues. He reveals that football has got the essence of commercialization mainly due to subsequent high levels of economic rewards being offered to the winners of the soccer leagues. The possibilities of getting high economic rewards insist the organizers of teams to look towards ways of assuring their team success. In this scenario hiring the services of competent foreign players appears to be an important and fruitful way of assuring this victory. Magee and Sudgen (p422) identify some of the important factors that support the internationalization of football players. The researchers reveal that the introduction of freedom of contracts and end of the foreign player quota system from the European countries is an important factor that fostered the trend of hiring as much as desired number of foreign players in the national team. The players are also hired from other countries to create media hype for the team that also confers ample revenues to the organizers and management from the sponsors and media groups. The practice of internationalization of football players has become very common in most of the western countries and along with England, some other countries like Spain, Germany and France also use to hire the services of the players from other countries. It is found that during 1999-2000 season of football in Italy, there were 33 percent of the series-A players that belong to foreign countries. Similarly, the teams of Spain and Germany also comprised of almost 40 percent of foreign players during the season of 1999-2000, whereas in France, the ratio of foreign players reached the level of 23 percent. It shows that the trend of international players hiring in the national teams has become a common practice for many of the European teams where the numbers of foreign players are considerable increasing in the national teams (Massarella, p62) The idea of hiring foreign players within the professional leagues in not very new, however, last decade has witnessed great momentum in the trend of internationalization of players. The European professional leagues now commonly use to engage the players from other countries whom they think could significantly contribute towards the team victories. This thinking supports cross border movements of players and ultimately led towards the globalization of football game (Sepp, p77). The increased trend of foreign players’ induction in the British soccer league is also fuelled by the commercial interest that has swapped this popular sport in to a football business. English premier league specially appears to be most welcoming destination for the global sports migrants due to the increased level of commercial investment, the number of non-English players is considerably increasing in EPL. The league has become the career map for many of the global football luminaries that actually do not belong to England but gained success and fame through the platform of EPL. The foreign players are convinced to join English premier league in exchange for attractive incentives and salaries (Bale and Maguire, p21). Internationalization of Players – the case study of EPL It is revealed that internationalization of football players is a common practice not only within the English Premier League but many other countries also used to follow the patterns of hiring overseas players to strengthen the victory scope of their teams. However, it is also a fact that the English premier league leads all the other countries and teams in terms of the number of foreign players being induced in to the team. EPL has witnessed dramatic increase in the numbers of foreign players over the last few decades (Bale and Maguire, p21). In order to understand the current state of foreign players hiring in EPL, it is imperative to have an insight over the primitive account of information that basically evolved the entire situation. The history of football in England shows the signs of customary disputes over the issues of the wages of the players. The professional football evolved in England mainly due to the popularity of the game amongst the working class of northern and midland areas in late 1800s. The revenues collected through the professional leagues were distributed among the players as the remuneration against their services. As the time passes, the issue of remuneration and the amount being given to be players became an important part of the game and the player as well as organizers start giving considerable important to the economic benefits gained from the game (Walvin, p76). Traditionally, the players used to sign 1-year contract with the football league for agreed amount of maximum wages and the players has no right to switch over to another league during the tenure. This standard procedure was strongly challenged in 1960s by Professional Footballers Association and its then Chairman Jimmy Hill. As a result, the retain-and-transfer system and maximum wages were perished and the players were given the freedom to free move from one club or country to another. Later an independent tribunal system was created in 1978 that directed to allocate an arbitrary fee to retain the players. The players also started legal proceedings to advocate their rights and in 1990, the Belgium Court allowed the players to move freely across the borders to continue their sports career in other countries. The European court of Justice after long procedure of hearings and appeals further elaborated the decision and it was finally declared that after the termination of their current contract, the players are legally free to join any other country’s professional league (Magee and Sugden, p 421). The decision of the court became the turning point for many sporting events and since then it has become a very common practice for the players to move cross borders freely. The freedom also increased the bargaining power of the top players and most of the times; the key players decide to move from one league to another on the basis of relative higher economic benefits. The clubs on the other hands also became open towards offering high incentives to the players in order to retain the top stars. This situation leads towards the internationalization of football in Europe that has gained further momentum in the era of globalization (Massarella, p62). The inclusion of foreign players in the national soccer team is not always deemed as a positive sign and the experts of the field believe that the increasing trend of hiring foreign players within the British soccer team is a great point of worry for the native talent. Experts widely agree that when the management of the football team gives more importance to the foreign players and remain busy in the initiatives to attract the foreign professionals to the team, the native English sports men are neglected. There are sort of restrictions imposed upon the potential career development of young English football career because they got fewer chances to get notices at national or international level (Sepp, p77). The trend of internationalization is also criticized from another perspective. Some of the sports experts also argue that the inclusion of the foreign players must remain limited to the high quality players and the English soccer team must not be flooded with hiring of foreign players with average performances. It is revealed by the experts that the inclusion of foreign players with extraordinary sporting capabilities and performance is very beneficial options for the team but the management of this trend is also very important. For instance, French start David Ginola that had been hired in English soccer team expresses his views regarding the internationalization of players in 1999 and explains that the overseas players help in acquiring and maintaining high level of team performances but the presence of foreign players with less gifted sporting skills and quality is rather a negative sign for the team and the future of the sports in the country also tends to be endangered (Hayward, p3). The grass root football is likely to be undermined in England due to unnecessary engagement of foreign players in the national teams. This view is accepted by the other experts of the field and there is general consensus about the fact that there should be some level of restriction regarding the unnecessary hiring of foreign players in the English football team. These restrictions are important to safeguard the future careers of the national football players (Magee and Sugden, p 421). The statistics showing the increase in number of foreign players also tends to draw negative impact upon the performance of the national teams and it is found that the national players lack motivation due to the realization that the team management and selection authorities use to give preference to the foreign players over them. The inclination of the selection authorities towards the foreign players dreadfully worked for demoralization of the national players that is clearly visible in form of poor performance of the national players in different contests. The British team succeeds to reach the victory stand taking up the support of the foreign players but the experts radically realize the weaknesses within the technical ability of the English players and consent that the national players lack sporting spirit and technical capabilities to sustain the team performance (Magee and Sugden, p 421). The two-legged affair is an important issue rooted from the practice of hiring foreign players in the English premier team. Magee and Sudgen (p423) explains two legged affair and deem it as a disquieting aspect of football internationalization. The researchers reveal the absence of competent left sided English player compels the selectors to recruit foreign players. For instance, in 1999-2000 sessions Jamie Redknapp was hired in EPL to perform left side duties of the midfield because no English player was available to play at this position with international standards. This example advocates the trend of hiring foreign players in the team and supports the concept that the unavailability of any specialist player could lead to team weakness so it is better to fill the position with any competent player belonging to some other country. Many English clubs adopt the strategy of hiring foreign players to play at the position of left side where the English footballers usually failed to perform at international standards. However, it was not accepted as valid justification for hiring foreign players and the sports experts widely insist upon proper training mentoring of the national players to play with quality technical skills at all the positions. The critics of global migration of footballers argue that the national players lack encouragement and training due to the attitude of the management giving preference to the foreign players. It is widely believed that there must be some restrictions enact to limit the numbers of the foreign players in EPL. At present there is average of 17 foreign players being hired in the 20 clubs of English premier league. These players have an important role in the victories of the team. For instance, in May 2008, the final of Championship League was played between Manchester United and Chelsea club in Moscow and out of 22 players, 12 were foreign players. The celebrity star of Manchester United Cristiano Ronaldo is a Portuguese player. Many other football starts playing for different clubs like Liverpool, Arsenal, and Chelsea belong to non European countries and these clubs succeed to reach to the final rounds of the championships taking support of quality performance of these foreign players (Sapp, p77). The impressive performance of Arsenal in the recent session is also claimed as result of the club’s strategy to import high performing players to play on their behalf. These four English clubs are among the ten richest clubs of the world and the hiring of the foreign players in these clubs indicate high amount of financial rewards to the players. Manchester City for instance paid £7 million to hire the Croatian defender Vedran Corluka. Chelsea on the other hand pays £135,000 a week to central defender John Terry and £70,000 a week to another foreign player Lucas Neill. There are many other foreign players that are being paid extremely high by the English clubs in exchange for their valuable service and these players also prove their worth by gearing up the performance level of the team that hired them (Sapp, p77). The following table shows the ratio English and foreign players hired by the 20 clubs of English premier league. The tables show that there is considerable increase in the number of foreign players hired by these clubs from 1989-90 to 2009-10 Club Name Composition of players ARSENAL 1989-90: 19 players born in UK, two born abroad 2009-10: Four players born in UK, 23 born abroad ASTON VILLA 1989-90: 19 players born in UK, three born abroad 2009-10: 18 players born in UK, 12 born abroad BIRMINGHAM CITY 1989-90: 19 players born in UK, none born abroad 2009-10: 18 players born in UK, nine born abroad BLACKBURN ROVERS 1989-90: 20 players born in UK, one born abroad 2009-10: Seven players born in UK, 18 born abroad BOLTON WANDERERS 1989-90: 19 players born in UK, one born abroad 2009-10: 13 players born in UK, 12 born abroad BURNLEY 1989-90: 20 players born in UK, none born abroad 2009-10: 16 players born in UK, seven born abroad CHELSEA 1989-90: 19 players born in UK, four born abroad 2009-10: Six players born in UK, 17 born abroad EVERTON 1989-90: 16 players born in UK, four born abroad 2009-10: 12 players born in UK, 10 born abroad FULHAM 1989-90: 21 players born in UK, one born abroad 2009-10: Eight players born in UK, 16 born abroad HULL CITY 1989-90: 20 players born in UK, three born abroad 2009-10: 14 players born in UK, 11 born abroad LIVERPOOL 1989-90: 18 players born in UK, five born abroad 2009-10: Four players born in UK, 20 born abroad MANCHESTER CITY 1989-90: 20 players born in UK, one born abroad 2009-10: Seven players born in UK, 16 born abroad PORTSMOUTH 1989-90: 21 players born in UK, none born abroad 2009-10: Nine players born in UK, 15 born abroad STOKE CITY 1989-90: 21 players born in UK, one born abroad 2009-10: 16 players born in UK, eight born abroad SUNDERLAND 1989-90: 21 players born in UK, one born abroad 2009-10: 14 players born in UK, 12 born abroad TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR 1989-90: 22 players born in UK, four born abroad 2009-10: 13 players born in UK, 12 born abroad WEST HAM UNITED 1989-90: 20 players born in UK, two born abroad 2009-10: 12 players born in UK, nine born abroad WIGAN ATHLETIC 1989-90: 19 players born in UK, none born abroad 2009-10: Nine players born in UK, 14 born abroad WOLVERHAMPTON WANDERERS 1989-90: 18 players born in UK, two born abroad 2009-10: 20 players born in UK, eight born abroad (Data Source: BBC Sports) Conclusion The above discussion helps understanding the strong linkage between the professional soccer league and economic recompenses. It is revealed that the global migration of the football players is backed by the intention to gain high economic benefits. The organizers use to offer high financial benefits to the foreign players so that they can earn even higher revenues from the success of the team. On the other hand, the players also look towards cross borders sporting opportunities so that they can accelerate their career whilst getting handsome amount of salaries. The fashion of international movement of football players has got momentum in the era of globalization. The case of English Premier League shows that hiring of foreign players was facilitated by the legal decisions as well as popularity of football among the working class that ultimately positioned the game as high finance rewarding game. The labor migration within EPL is backed by economic benefits provided by the clubs and leagues to the players against their high quality playing capabilities. It is also revealed that EPL uses to spent high amount of money to attract the foreign players and most of the times, these players made significant contribution towards the victory of the team. The entire discussion could be sum up with the conclusion that the foreign players possess great value and worth for the British soccer league because traditionally they tend to play vital role in team victories. However, it is also important to look towards the dark side of the picture that tells about the weaknesses of the English football players emerged due to the primary focus of professional leagues towards the foreign players. It is very important to create balance within the national professional football leagues providing the career growth opportunities to the English players. However, despite the scholarly and field criticism upon hiring increased numbers of foreign players in English soccer league, the value of the international played to the team victories could not be renounce Work Cited Bale, J. and Maguire, J. (Eds.) (1994), the global sports arena: Athletic talent migration in an interdependent world. London: Frank Cass. BBC Sports (2009), where the Premier Leagues players come from, retrieved online from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/eng_prem/8182090.stm Conn, D. (1997).The football business: Fair game in the ‘90s? Edinburgh, United Kingdom: Mainstream. Hayward, P. (1999b, November 27).Great hair, pity about parting of ways over foreigners, The Daily Telegraph, p.S3 Jonathan Magee and John Sugden (2002),"The World at their Feet": Professional Football and International Labour Migration, Journal of Sport & Social Issues, Volume 26, No.4, November 2002, pp.421-437, Sage Publications Massarella, L. (2000, February).Foreign disgrace, Four Four Two, pp.62-65 Sepp, B. (2002), we won, so lets make it worse. Economist; 5/24/2008, Vol. 387 Issue 8581, p77-77, 1/2p Walvin, J. (1975).The people’s game London: Penguin Read More