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| Yes | 73% | 8 votes | Total: 11 votes | |
| No | 27% | 3 votes |
Yes
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Add to FavoritesAn activity involving physical exertion and skill that is governed by a set of rules or customs and often undertaken competitively, that is a text book definition of sport. Soccer/Football ceases to be a sport when other teams feel that they can monopolise it with factors such as a big bank account. It is the sport equivalent of bullying, a bigger club comes along and feels it can make advances to a player which has a club and is developing under his/her current club. This is not a sporting practice, clubs that do this are preventing other clubs of lesser stature (in a financial sense)competing and developing into better clubs and bettering the sport. A chief example of which is in the way of a London club that I shall not mentioned feels it can "bully" clubs into selling prized young players and therefore robbing them of potential.
FIFA should recognise this and penalise the clubs that do this, encouraging teams to develop their own talent and bettering the sport. National teams would benefit from this as well and therefore improving the game as a whole.
Clubs should be allowed to develop their teams, the business side of the game has overtaken what this great sport is supposed to be; a competitive spectator sport. The game should be about tactics, skill, strategy and finesse not bank balances. It is FIFA's responsibility to enforce stricter rules and proceeds with regard to player acquisition and transfers. If a club breaches these rules then the club should be penalised where all clubs are equal and thats on table, separated only by their performance as a team. Financial punishments are not fair because not all clubs having the same spending power and it wouldn't deter the larger clubs enough.
I would also propose that football associations impose a draft system similar to the NFL. This is a great model as lot of great players come out of it. It is also difficult to monopolise the game this way and clubs would be merited on performance and would make the game more competitive for smaller clubs. I honestly believe that the game would be a lot more open and competitive in the area it should be; the pitch.
I understand many may not agree with my opinion however it is only my opinion and I suspect we may never see clubs penalised in this manner.
Learn more about this author, Craig Armsworth.
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No
I think that we're already in murky water here. In this context what does 'poach' actually mean? If a club courts a junior player already under contract with another club how far would be too far? FIFA and Mr Blatter need to decide this. It is obvious that the best young players will want to play where they feel they can best develop their game, and, apparently how quickly their pockets can be filled. The parents of the youngster might even want a house in Notting Hill. (Mr and Mrs Kakuta?)
But if there is no written, tangible contract then the 'big' clubs will not be deterred and sooner or later the player will come around. It takes a loyal kind of fondness for ones' hometown club to turn down a plane ticket and a new life in the big leagues. Verbal agreements just won't stand up to time, especially if a young players' potential talent is spotted by a scouting network from abroad, and, lets face it, clubs have been prising 'the next Zidane' from each other for a long time and if proper punishments aren't handed out it will continue.
These clubs, such as Chelsea, have eyes everywhere because they can afford to have eyes everywhere, they can buy players at the peak of their powers, (well not at the moment), and they can bring in the French kid whose family will find a way out through football. Points deductions won't do, to stop this we need to tread on Mr Abramovich's fat fingers or at least for the time being, tie up his purse strings. Some feel it was a harsh penalty to apply a transfer ban on Chelsea, but it is the exact area they are abusing so the punishment is more than just. You have an academy too, Roman.
The argument goes further, though. Clubs have already lost identities due to fielding teams of 11 foreign players on a regular basis, but what happens when the town where that french youngster is from can no longer compete, because 10-20 of the worlds clubs snap up talent before it can be showcased? This is only one reason that the gap will widen, the smaller clubs will shrivel and the bigger clubs will grow. FIFA need to recognise this for the sake of the game, before the bloated rich list clubs and their oil barons have only themselves to blame.
Learn more about this author, Ray Graydon.
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