Corporate greed gets in the way of developing our talent
The News Review:
- Corporate greed gets in the way of developing our talent
- Correction to This Article
- High Times
Corporate greed gets in the way of developing our talent
Telegraph.co.uk - Feb 28, 2005
So, when he defends the selection of a wholly non-English squad at Highbury, is he speaking for England or for the interests of his own club? No sensible football supporter can deny that the quality of Premiership football has been greatly enhanced by the inclusion of supremely gifted players like Cantona, Zola, Bergkamp and Henry, or that the Englishmen who play with them or against them can learn much from their skills. The problem is not at that level - genius makes its own rules. But the game’s governing body have a duty not only to promote the highest quality of league football but to ensure, in the interests of the national team that home-grown players are not unfairly denied career opportunities in the game. As things stand, only one-in-five of English players who join professional clubs at 16 are still in the senior game five years later. This makes it all the more incomprehensible, even reprehensible, that the Football Association - no doubt prompted by the powerful senior clubs - are evidently opposed to UEFA’s modest proposal that four home-grown players (two from the club’s own development programme) should be included in any squad of 25. UEFA would like to see that ratio grow from four to eight in succeeding seasons. Journeymen overseas players are being preferred to home talent, not always for playing reasons, but because they are easier to get rid of under employment laws…
This makes it all the more incomprehensible, even reprehensible, that the Football Association - no doubt prompted by the powerful senior clubs - are evidently opposed to UEFA’s modest proposal that four home-grown players (two from the club’s own development programme) should be included in any squad of 25. UEFA would like to see that ratio grow from four to eight in succeeding seasons. Journeymen overseas players are being preferred to home talent, not always for playing reasons, but because they are easier to get rid of under employment laws. To those who say this process hasn’t damaged the prospects of the England team, I have only one question: why, then, haven’t we won an international tournament for 40 years? The same sort of problem, on a smaller monetary scale, is affecting rugby union and cricket. As in football, the top rugby stars - men like Michael Lynagh, Pat Howard, Josh Kronfeld, Craig Dowd - have taught their young English team-mates a great deal and improved the quality of the club rugby the public pay to watch. Our cricket, too, has reason to be grateful for some great Australian and Asian imports over the years. But what is the point of our county clubs giving Australian Test players some short-term practice in county conditions immediately prior to the Ashes series, at the expense of young English prospects? And what is the long-term value to English rugby when our top clubs bring in some barely known Springbok or Argentine prop on a short contract at the expense of their own academy players? When the Olympic Games are up for discussion, the public debate is all about seeking ways of developing our own individual national talent, and quite right too.
Correction to This Article
Washington Post - Feb 28, 2005
, operator of Hecht’s and Lord & Taylor, for about $10. 4 billion, executives close to the talks said Sunday. The deal, which is to be announced Monday, raises questions about the future of the 148-year-old Hecht’s name, the only surviving home-grown department store in a Washington region once crowded with brands such as Woodward & Lothrop, Garfinckel’s, and Lansburgh’s. Federated has long sought to create a national department store chain under the Macy’s nameplate, and analysts predict the Hecht’s banner eventually could be dropped. inc –>.
High Times
CNN - Feb 28, 2005
About this time, on one of her trips back to Topton, Deborah told how Eric took her out into the woods and showed off some of his plants; as evidence of his devotion to his enterprise, he would even haul jugs of water to his pot patch to make sure the plants were getting their proper share. The business seemed to have slacked off during Rudolph’s brief stint in the military, but his marijuana use certainly didn’t. A barracks mate at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, told the FBI Rudolph always seemed to have a couple of ounces of pot on hand and that he made it clear this was home-grown from North Carolina — and that he grew it in the mountains four to five miles from his home. This Army friend said that Rudolph wouldn’t go out with the other soldiers, instead he would hang back in his room and get high, reading military manuals and (a) book called "The Little Black Book of Explosives. " When he was off-duty, Eric would make the hour drive from Ft. Campbell to Nashville, where he would crash at Joel and Deborah’s place. Deborah would say that it was all about pot, pizza and sleep.