Football: My plan to stop foreign legion killing our game; 'OUR

FOOTBALL's transfer system is under threat and may be on the verge of collapse. That may sound sensational, but it's a fact.

The politicians of the European Commission, lawyers and agents are claiming that transfer fees are illegal and that players, like any other workers, can walk out with a month's notice.

Yes - ironically the same agents who have creamed millions from the game under the present system and brought it into disrepute and expect to make even more in a football world where contracts don't mean a thing.

Last season pounds 125million out of pounds 150million of our total transfer turnover went abroad - pounds 75million this summer alone.

Hardly anything came back from players leaving English football , creating a Balance of Payments deficit which would see any Chancellor of the Exchequer out of office.

What have we got to show for it? A conservative estimate would suggest pounds 20million in the agents' pockets.

We have gone from 11 foreign players in 1992 to over 200 in the Premiership alone this year - and 500 in total throughout the League.

A survey last December showed that less than one third of the foreign players were actually starting games for their club's first 11.

Only a tiny percentage of the players are sold on for a profit and the majority who don't make the grade slip out of the back door for nothing.

Players coming here should be better than what is available and the majority haven't proved that.

It's also a fallacy to say the foreign players are better value when the majority are not in the first team.

In fact, such imported players adversely affect the development of home- grown players - at a time when the game is putting millions into Youth Development.

AT such a time it is amazing that a Government putting together a multi- million package of taxpayers' money to stage a World Cup here in 2006 is not helping to fix the problem but is in fact making it worse by relaxing work-permit criteria for non-EU foreign players.

If we aren't careful, by 2006 we won't have a national team able to do us credit.

New work-permit criteria state that football bodies including the PFA will no longer vet applications. I can't think of any other profession where a work permit can be obtained without showing a thorough search for a resident worker.

Neither are wages to be used as a guide of quality any more - another excuse to bring in cheaper but not better players.

This trend has enlarged the gap between the Premiership and the Football League.

Virtually every Premiership team makes millions in profit but last season hardly any Football League teams were in the black. In the past the top flight bought the Keegans, Rushes, Beardsleys and Barneses from the lower divisions. This kept smaller clubs viable.

Now the trend is reversed and Nationwide clubs are buying the young Premiership players squeezed out by the foreigners, leaving the small clubs in deficit.

The PFA is backing the President of FIFA, Sepp Blatter, who proposes that every club should field at least five players developed in the country concerned.

It is not just the transfer fees that worry us, it's what happens to the money. Recently we've seen a London club buy two players from a foreign club who received pounds 400,000 less than the British club paid.

Too often clubs in Eastern Europe, South America, Africa and Scandinavia receive considerably less than our clubs pay - the balance goes to the agents. The transfer of Nicolas Anelka (below) saw his brothers claiming pounds 2million.

To improve matters and help put our house in order, four things should happen.

FIFA and the FA must put together regulations requiring clubs to inform them of where all the money in a transfer has gone. They must state which agent is involved, and he or she must be licensed.

On international transfers, the FA should act as a clearing house with all money going through the national association.

Stricter work-permit criteria are needed, including consultation with the football bodies, evidence of a domestic search and proper quality control. There should be no more than two permit players of established international status per Premier team - no more than one per Division One team.

We need stricter licensing and vetting of agents. At the moment any man and his wife can become an agent. All you need is a 10- minute interview and proof that you have no police record. No football expertise is required. They should have to show knowledge of football rules and regulations. We need a standard fee and standard contract. Money should be paid subject to the players' contract being fulfilled.

At the moment agents take money up front from both football clubs and from the player - then they start work on the next move before the player has even moved house!

Without new regulations our transfer system will collapse.

Great pressure has been put on the football bodies in the past to change the work-permit criteria.

Players like Ilie Dumitrescu, Marc Hottiger, Marco Branco and Nii Lampti are just a few of the players on whom we saw millions spent - yet they did not achieve first-team status. Meanwhile how many Michael Owens, Robbie Fowlers, Gary Nevilles, David Beckhams, Sol Campbells, Rio Ferdinands are out there waiting for a chance?

Nobody is denying the impact of top-quality players on our game but we have a duty to develop our own talent and create our own role models. When we discovered less than 50 out of 150 foreign players started for their clubs in the Premiership last December such figures don't suggest value for money or the long-term health of our game.

I'd suggest we are on the road to ruin as the agents are laughing all the way to the bank, looking for their next easy pickings.

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