FC Bayern Forum

“Football is a socialist sport, some players may receive more rewards than others but from a footballing perspective, regardless of whether you are Messi or the substitute right-back, you are all working towards the same end. Teams that understand the value of collective work are more successful. Sporting wise, I think that China and Cuba, especially Cuba, show that there’s a very natural connection between socialism and sporting excellence”.

“For sure. I also think that back then, the city of Liverpool had very strong socialist roots and that helped the players feel very much connected to the fans. There was a strong sense of belonging and the players felt as representatives of the city, the fans and the socialist values. Kenny Dalglish epitomized that spirit. He was the greatest star but he knew that the collective spirit is more important than him. He felt that everyone should feel that they are part of something bigger than themselves. I have no doubt that the fact that there was strong identification between the players and fans helped the team on the field. Even today, teams with footballers who feel part of a community, are doing better than other teams. Look at Barcelona and its Catalan identity. A team with a strong sense of belonging to its community is a stronger team”.

“No. definitely not. The Premier League is really affected by celebrity culture. Players don’t feel that they belong to their team, to the city or to the fans. They can’t identify with regular folks because they are so much richer and so famous. They can’t think as a collective because they are obsessed with themselves, with their status, with their place in their teams’ hierarchy and with what people say about them.
That’s one of the problems of English football today. Young players are being treated as super stars and they have the aura of football stars but they are not good enough to be superstars.

Players don’t see the club as something bigger than them, they see it as a tool that will help their personal success. Many players like Robin Van Persie or Wayne Rooney said that “the club doesn’t match my ambitions”. That’s very insulting to their teammates and friends, to the clubs which are great institutions and to the fans. The problem is that even the fans accept that because our culture is more obsessed with the success of individuals and not the success of the society.”

“That’s part of the problem. The big problem is that there aren’t many English footballers at the very top of the Premier league. It’s a problem that is derived from the structure of clubs ownership in England.

In Germany, for example, when the German football federation felt that something should be done about the lack of quality German players, they asked the clubs to develop German footballers and let them play at the highest level. The German clubs agreed because they are owned by the German people and they have realized the importance of a successful German national team to German football and German society.

In England it’s just not possible. Who will the English football association ask to play with English footballers? Will they ask Roman Abramovich or the Manchester City owners? Or the American owners of Liverpool, Arsenal and Manchester United? They don’t care about English footballers or England. They care about their team and their success and they are foreigners why should they care about English football? The real problem is that the fans accept that. The fans of the big clubs don’t actually support England. They just want their players not to get injured while playing for England. They care more about success of their clubs and less about England’s success. That’s why many of England’s fans are supporters of Birmingham, Crawley, Doncaster or some other small club. The big clubs fans can’t be bothered”.

“I think that there are some very good English players. The problem for many young English players is that the big clubs sign them for to their academies at a very young age, when they are 14, 15 or 16. And they never really give them a chance in the senior squad.

They bring very talented players from all over the world and the English players find themselves unable to break through and play for the big teams. At an age when they should play for the biggest clubs in the Premier League, they find themselves in the West Bromiches and Watfords. It’s very hard for them to go back to the big teams. I think that if Steven Gerrard would have been a youngster in Liverpool today, he would have ended up in Bolton or Wolves.

Another thing is that the big clubs don’t want to buy players from the West Bromiches and Watfords, they want to buy international super stars and again, the fans accept that. They don’t want players who they can identify with, they want players who would bring their team wins and trophies. The fans themselves care less about seeing a local lad playing for their team, they want their team to spend big. I was a player at Watford before I moved to Liverpool. I was developed by a very good coach, Graham Taylor and I was a full England international before moving to Liverpool. I don’t think that a talented youngster from Watford can have the same career I had in today’s game“.

“When big clubs do buy 16 year old English players, they are not ready for the big time and they ruin the youngster’s will to learn and improve. These youngsters are being treated as superstars when they are 16 and fail to improve their game.

You see, when you are a youngster you are inconsistent and it’s alright to be inconsistent – as long as you know you have to work hard and improve, but when you are being treated as a star before you are one, it’s harder to do so. So we get lots of young players who grew up without being consistent and without improving their game. And in the highly stressful atmosphere of a big football club, they collapse under the pressure.”

“Well, legally you can’t prevent Europeans from coming to play in England. However, the same applies in Germany and Spain and still, in Barcelona they choose to play with local kids and in Bayern Munich they want to play with Bavarian players. It’s an unwritten rule there. It’s important for the fans, presidents and coaches to play with local players. They can play with 11 foreigners in their team but they choose not to. I can’t see the owners of English teams insist on English players in the starting XI because they are not English.”

“Yes, and they also have a British coach who might want to coach British players more than a foreign manager. Yet, the owners are making decisions that will help them earn money from the game. I’m not criticizing them for that, I’m praising them. They understand that the community is important for their business model. However, it’s going to very difficult for them to succeed when some teams can invest more. When some teams can invest a lot more than Liverpool it endangers their good work."

“Oh, that is a very good solution. I have no problem with a player earning 250,000 pounds, the problem is that the average footballer earns 9,000 pounds a week and that some teams can field 11 players who earn 250,000 a week while other teams can only field 11 players who earn 9,000 a week.

A salary cap would lead to a situation where more teams can field a 250,000 player in their starting 11. The concentration of talent in a few teams is something that a salary cap would solve. The problem now with the Premier League is that you have teams that are managed by businessmen who want to earn money and other teams managed by club owners who don’t care about losing money. Roman Abramovich and Sheikh Mansour don’t care if they lose money as long as their team is successful. It’s an uneven playing field. How can you compete with that?”.

“I don’t want to see it just in English football, I want to see it in English society.

Look, who promotes this Rooney rule in English football? Are any of those black? How many of the people in mainstream media are black? How many people in the corridors of power are black? How many black bankers are there in your local bank? Football is just part of the problem and rules just for football are just for racist people who don’t want to be perceived as racist. The Rooney Rule just for football is for racists who want to feel morally right. There is racism in football because there’s racism in society and the fact that no one is throwing a banana at me doesn't mean that there is no racism. If someone is racist for 6 days a week and then comes to football and shuts up because he doesn't want to be punished, so it doesn't mean he’s not racist. If I’m not being called Nigger on the pitch it’s only because a racist doesn't want to be banned from the stadium, but does it change the society? Rooney rule might change football but it’s not going to change society.

I have a white manager friend who once told me “I don’t see you as a black man?”, so what does it mean? How does he see me, as a white man? I’m black. What did he mean by that? Yeah, you might have a black friend, and you might see a black footballer as your hero, and you might love the black manager of your team, but if it doesn't change what you automatically feel about the black man in the street, then you are a racist, an unconscious racist.

It’s a result of 200 years of learning how to be racist. It will take time to change that and the Rooney rule in football is not going to change that. You see, we blacks are perceived as good at sports, entertaining and dancing so yeah, giving a black man a chance as a football manager is an extension of it, but are we being perceived as intellectuals, politicians? bankers? The Rooney rule should be implemented in every industry, not just football. By they way, the real dangerous racists are those who know when to shut up”.

“I have to admit that I wouldn't be different from anyone else out there today. I’d arrive to the training with my Rolls-Royce as well. Back then I wasn’t intellectually capable of thinking like I am today as a 50 year old, experienced man. I see things very differently now. I would like to think that I would have been talented enough to be transferred from Watford to Liverpool, but I don’t think that I would have gotten the chance today. After all, I’m English”.