More Englishmen does not improve England’s results
PLANS to improve the England team by increasing the number of Englishmen playing in the Premier League are fundamentally flawed and may even damage the national team’s results, according to a new study.
Football Association chairman Greg Dyke insists England can win the World Cup by 2022 if his vision for populating the top flight with greater numbers of English players is carried out.
But data compiled by think tank the Adam Smith Institute (ASI) and revealed to City A.M. – see chart – shows there is virtually zero relationship between the amount of minutes spent by Englishmen playing in the top tier and England’s international performance.
If anything, the numbers, based on 21 years of statistics, suggest that England’s Fifa ranking is actually negatively affected by an increase in playing time for English players.
“It may well be that less experience means a worse team, but if so it seems like it’s being cancelled out by another effect: many footballers say that foreign players have raised the overall standard and this may be what’s going on,” said ASI head of policy Ben Southwood. “Dyke’s policy will make English clubs worse without any likely benefits to the national team now or down the line.”