“And I said to myself, this is the business we’ve chosen.”
Anyone agonizing over England’s early exit from the 2014 World Cup would be well advised to take those words from The Godfather: Part II character Hyman Roth to heart.
Doing so would avert the sort of inquest that has started since Costa Rica beat Italy on Friday, eliminating the Three Lions from the competition. Instead of pointing fingers and sermonizing about development, feeder clubs and Clairfontaines, the heart of the matter could sooner be reached, and the heart of the matter is this: The English national team is what it is because the Premier League exists.
2014 FIFA World Cup: Sportsnet.ca is your home for in-depth coverage of the FIFA World Cup in Brazil. TV viewers can watch all 64 games on CBC and Sportsnet from June 12 to July 13. Be sure to watch Connected every night on Sportsnet for all of the latest news and analysis. And check out Sportsnet magazine’s team profiles of all 32 nations.
All the blame, all the solution-mongering only complicates the clear reality that where a club-level behemoth resides there’s no room whatever for an international associate of similar power. The two cannot coexist. It’s the law of priorities. And in England, because of the Premier League, club football is the distinct priority—at least to those who have a commercial stake in the sport, who are the only people that really matter.
As Telegraph columnist Jonathan Liew asked in his excellent assessment of England’s World Cup campaign, “In whose interest is it to develop and nurture young English players?”
The answer of course, is “no one’s.” Not when the country’s top flight is agreeing Asian broadcast deals worth nearly a billion pounds; not when television revenues have increased tenfold since 1992. And certainly not when all the exposure leads to increased shirt and product sales.
The Premier League is awash in cash, and its clubs can’t help spending it all. Naturally, they’re dolling it out on the best players money can buy, and that means squads populated by some of the top internationals in the world. And academies? Who needs them? When a need arises, why not address it by purchasing a superstar? Promoting a prospect from the Under-21s would be too risky. It wouldn’t be good business.
Now, this arrangement isn’t, in itself, wrong. That Cardiff City and Aston Villa can buy Gary Medel and Ron Vlaar instead of the local lad from down the way isn’t wrong, and that their fans enjoy watching the Chile and Netherlands internationals (both of whom are through to the next round of the World Cup) isn’t wrong.
But it’s a posture that feeds the Premier League machine and commits countless English players to obscurity. Indirectly—even on the part of the fans—it’s a business decision.
The Guardian’s Barney Roney put it perfectly when he penned an apology to the England team from Belo Horizonte: “Sorry,” he wrote, “for sitting on my sofa enjoying the brilliantly dressed product that is another six-hour soaraway Super Sunday, created by a system that while extremely successful in its staging, is clearly incompatible with also expecting English football to produce players capable of bestriding the globe at a World Cup.”
In other words, all the blame games and brainstorming in the world won’t make England a success. No, the players aren’t good enough, but that’s not their fault. And feeder clubs and Clairefontaines won’t change that.
The English public has already made its choice, and it’s chosen the Premier League. It’s prioritized club football with every Sky box switched on and cable subscription activated to catch some of the entertainment. That domestic talent is destined to suffer as a result is just part of the transaction.
That’s just the way it is. It’s not wrong. It’s just business.
Jerrad Peters is a Winnipeg-based writer. Follow him on Twitter.