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| | Tuesday 13 May, 2008 | | Blog: National pride | | The Champions League Final may be an all-English affair, but Paul Rayment applauds the peninsula’s clubs for the way they attempted to win it |  |  | | As all eyes turn to Moscow for this season’s Champions League Final, many here in England are seizing the moment to proclaim the Premiership as the best League in Europe – and if you’re going that far you may as well say the world.
Few can counter this, with two English teams in the grand finale and a third having reached the semis. But how far can a country’s dominance of the Champions League be considered a barometer of their domestic League’s success or in deed its health?
I argue that while Italy may have failed this season with regards to Europe’s premier competition, Italy and Serie A should be proud that they attempted it at no risk to their national side and the health of Italian football as a whole.
This season Italy was represented by Milan, Inter, Roma and Lazio. Both clubs from the capital finished the campaign with exactly 50 per cent of their squad being of Italian nationality, while Milan fared slightly better with 54 per cent Italian representation. Only Inter let the side down with an embarrassingly low 15 per cent – but they do like their South Americans!
In contrast Manchester United’s squad boasted only 11 Englishmen, making up 40 per cent of their total squad, while Chelsea claimed 27 per cent, Liverpool 31 per cent and Arsenal 32 per cent, although the amount of Englishmen who actually turned out for the Gunners is minute.
It should also be noted that with the exception of Manchester United and Chelsea, England’s Champions League teams used English players as squad players, with many rarely seeing a full 90 minutes on the pitch.
Many will argue that this is a worldwide game and even though a club may have its roots in one country, it doesn’t mean they have to include players from there as well. But what if by doing so they are damaging the identity of the country that they call home and more importantly harming the national set up?
English fans will be mere neutral observers during this summer’s European Championship and is it any wonder when the clubs that are meant to be representing them at the highest club level rely on foreign imports.
Sure, Italy’s representatives from Rome and Milan won’t be bringing any silverware back from Moscow this year, but the Azzurri are second favourites to be triumphant at Euro 2008 and back in 2006 won a little competition called the World Cup. The country’s club sides have ensured that Italian players are playing the most competitive football possible and the results are plain to see.
Is it possible then to have a successful national team as well as world-class representation in the Champions League? Of course it is. Take a look at the two teams who turned out for the 2003 Final at Old Trafford. Including the subs bench, nine of Milan’s 18 strong squad were born on the peninsula as were 11 of those representing Juventus.
Fans of Milan, Inter, Roma and Lazio, be proud because even though Moscow won’t hold any interest for you this season, rest assured that when you next taste Champions League silverware you will know that it was a truly Italian team that got you there – unless you support Inter of course…
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| Good article. Not only is the Premiership over-saturated with foreigners, but one of the reasons English teams progressed so far is because they played in a more traditionally Italian 'style' – keeping it tight at the back and then nicking a goal to win 1-0. Also take Rangers' brave/negative-mind-numbingly-boring success in the UEFA Cup. It isn't half frustrating following Italian football in England and having to withstand constant gloating concerning this issue of British domination in Europe.
I for one am glad England failed to progress to this year’s European Championship, if only to avoid witnessing them stumble to yet another quarter-final only to be outplayed and knocked out. Italy's national team may be an ageing one, but with an array of young players such as Giovinco, Montolivo, Chiellini, Balotelli, Rossi – to name a few – coming through, the future looks bright for La Nazionale.
Alessandro
Good blog even if I just think it was slightly one sided and included a bit of English bashing with an attempt to praise the Italian teams. Having said that, I do agree with you…
Dave Hay
I agree wholeheartedly with your comments. I follow my second team Roma through television, but I know from my relations in Rome that many fans are fed up with the exorbitant salaries paid out to acquire big name foreign players. They have expressed the opinion to me on many occasions that Roma should turn their backs on expensive imports all together and concentrate in bringing young home grown talent through, even if it means not challenging for the title for a while.
The completely blinkered English media constantly harp on about the supremacy of the English Premiership and while acknowledging that Arsenal, in full flow, are probably the most entertaining footballing side in England, they usually only have one Englishman in their starting line up. Even then, if there is an Englishman in the team they usually allude to him as possibly the best player in the world and ignore the claims of the foreign players – Beckham when he was at Man Utd and now Rooney are prime examples.
As a Scot, it doesn't disturb me at all that English teams do not give their young players a chance, but perhaps the love affair with the EPL will wane in due course. Already four teams dominate the game year after year and this is unlikely to change so long as the Champions League format remains the same guaranteeing those teams even more wealth each year. Even fan interest in that tournament is starting to wane as the same teams play each other year after year. While restricting the number of foreign players is contrary to EC law, perhaps the clubs should agree to enforce it voluntarily for the long-term future of the game.
Brian La Piazza
I couldn't agree more with your blog! Italian football clubs have always given a fantastic representation of Italian players in European Cup competitions. I recall the Juventus Champions League winning team of 1996 featured an incredible 10 Italian players in the Final and Parma's UEFA Cup victory in 1999 featured an impressive seven Italian players.
Indeed throughout these tournament victories this remained fairly consistent from the preliminary stages of qualifying to the Finals. It was not a result of favouritism to Italian players in the final stages of the tournaments, but instead a true representation of the fundamentally important players that made up the winning squads at the time.
In England these sort of home grown statistics simply cannot be equalled. Additionally, it is far more regular for Italian Coaches to lead Italian teams to such victories than foreign managers. Again English top-flight teams cannot equal this.
The benefits of this home grown representation is that Italian football is rewarded with an Italian national team that has more players to choose from and as results show, is much more successful. The Italian squad remains competitive with players who do not take selections for granted. Additionally, Italy is able to maintain its identity and pride in its top League far and away above English football which is now so heavily dependant on foreigners to maintain its 'premier' status.
All of this proceeds further to stem down to the Italian youth players and children who grow up idolising Italian players and knowing they have a far better chance of breaking into professional football and for filling their dreams than their English counterparts do. The result, the future is bright for Italian football, at this moment its hard to say the same for English football.
M Iaconelli
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