EPL: Stress on imported talent hurting England team

With nine matches, this weekend saw the kickoff — literally — of Europe’s largest sporting event: the beginning of football leagues across the continent. On Saturday, the English Premier League ( EPL) took off; the other great leagues, in Germany and Spain, will start next weekend. The Italian league will follow the weekend after and the French one is already into its second week. The beginning of every season is fraught with expectations: players have been transferred, managers have come and gone and fans want their teams to sweat blood to come out on top. Even in India, ranked 150 in the world of football, the excitement is palpable, in some sections of the TV-viewing fraternity.

Of all the leagues, the EPL is possibly the most cosmopolitan and open-ended. Unlike Germany, Spain or Italy, which have two or three top teams with massive financial and technical prowess, things are more evenly distributed in the EPL. Top talent from all over the world plays in this league, which makes it so watchable. That probably explains why a top team like Manchester United lost to a small club like Swansea on Saturday. Yet, the success of the league probably makes the national team weak. With so many imported players, it is possibly tougher to generate local talent to play for the national side. Now, that’s a paradox.