What if the World Cup allowed only native-born players?

[HJ Tulp]

There is no "spirit" of the World Cup. It's a business venture run by business men to make money. FIFA is a business venture run by business men to make money. Professional sports is a business venture run by business men to make money. Even the Olympics is business venture run by business men to make money.

Unlike you, I know that foreign-born players are necessary because because the business men running footie teams to make money use whatever foreign-born players they can afford. You can bleat about the "spirit" of the game and what is "fair" all you want, the bottom line and the actions taken daily by club owners to protect and grow that bottom line is all the proof I need for my assertion.

Bill

Eh? The FIFA may be run like a business but it's a Federation of football associations. The members of those associations are almost always clubs, not business or property.

 

[Fiji]

I did a quick check of the top 3 clubs from your country, Tulp.
All three are Joint Stock Companies (and the stocks of Ajax are even publicly available) ie, all three are businesses.
Especially Feyenoord is run to make a profit ... the fact that they seriously overspent in the early 2000s and that they seriously overestimated the value of their players does not detract from this.
I didn't check all the clubs, but I bet most, if not all, eredivisie clubs are JSCs.
In fact, an oft heard lament about Belgian first division footy is that many clubs are still NPOs and this does not conform to the reality of todays pro football.
Now look at ManU, Real Madrid, AC Milan or Arsenal ... all are businesses who happen to have football as their product.

 

[terence]

It's a function of Global Warming---see how the 2002 French World Cup squad are more tanned than the 1930 French World Cup Squad.