When Sepp Blatter suggested too much money and migration could ruin club competition in some competitions, the FIFA president couldn't have asked for better contrasting examples than the Club World Championship semifinalists.
Liverpool, the most successful of England's big clubs in terms of trophies won, is playing Costa Rica's Deportivo Saprissa tomorrow in the six-team competition.
Liverpool's roster includes players from 10 nations, including five from Spain, the home of coach Rafa Benitez.
Saprissa, the Purple Monsters, is made up entirely of Costa Rican players at the insistence of owner Jorge Vergara, who also owns Mexican team Chivas de Guadalajara and has continued a century-long tradition of nationals-only at the Mexican club.
Liverpool pays out millions of dollars each year, while Saprissa keeps its salaries comparatively modest. The top earner on the San Jose-based team would earn less in a season than Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard earns in a week, despite salaries in the Costa Rica league being high by Central American standards.
Blatter is leading a drive to restore what he calls "national identity" to clubs in all countries and wants to impose minimum quotas for homegrown players in all clubs in all leagues.
The Bosman Ruling prohibits limits on the number of European players that continental clubs can hire, along with guidelines that allow migration for European workers around the EU. Although setting the minimum quota for local players could circumvent the Bosman ruling to some degree.
Blatter said a FIFA taskforce "for the good of the game" was investigating restoring the "national identity of clubs."
"It's very important. The regulations on the club competition are not made so far by FIFA, but by the national associations concerned," he said. "It's up to the federations and the leagues to limit the entry of foreign players. It's a good solution."
Blatter said EU principles of free circulation for citizens made it difficult to impose limits on clubs.
"It means as long as footballers are considered workers and not as artists, then in the European clubs, they can field many players from other European places," he said. "We are aware of it. What is the solution is to set a minimum. FIFA's idea is to have at least, in every club football match, six players from each club eligible for the national team of the country where they're playing. This is the system: six plus five."
Blatter said the problem was not restricted to England, where the high-paying Premier League attracts players from all over the globe.
"It's not just England. Bayern Munich is one, maximum of two or three German players. This is a situation that's not good for football."
Retaining England midfielder Gerrard was considered one of the most important signings of the season for Liverpool, given he's a homegrown talent. After guiding the Merseyside club to the Champions League title, he figured his value had soared 25 percent to a reported ?100,000 (150,000 euros) per week.
Blatter has already met with representatives of the EU, including British Sports Minister Richard Carbon, to discuss ways of curbing the exorbitant salaries for top players and ensure the game develops at all levels.
For years, FIFA has been involved in a feud with the G14 group of the richest European clubs.
He said recently that football was in danger of being destroyed by wealthy club owners who pour "pornographic amounts of money" into the game.
Asked if greed was ruining the game, Blatter said: "Yes, it's a fact that in club football, in some of the leagues, the rich become richer and the poor become poorer. This is not football."
He said qualification for the World Cup proved that teams from all over the world could be competing on a level playing field.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
HSIEH MAKES QUARTERS: Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens of Belgium won in the women’s doubles and face Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Sofia Kenin of the US Top-ranked Iga Swiatek and US Open champion Coco Gauff were knocked out of the women’s singles at the Miami Open on Monday, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced in the women’s doubles. Swiatek lost to Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-4, 6-2, hours after third seed Gauff fell in three sets to No. 23 Caroline Garcia 6-3, 1-6, 6-2. Alexandrova beat a top-ranked player for the first time and advanced to face Jessica Pegula, a 7-6 (7/1), 6-3 winner over Emma Navarro, in the quarter-finals. Alexandrova recorded her second win over Swiatek, following a 2021 victory in Melbourne. Swiatek had won their three matches since. “We played quite