England 'won't win WC again': Platini
Monday, 27 October 2008
LONDON, Oct 26 (AFP): England won't win the World Cup again while leading Premier League clubs are so reliant on foreign players, according to Michel Platini, the president of European football governing body UEFA.
"Soon in England you will have no English players, no English managers, just foreign speculators," France football great Platini said in an interview with the Observer Sports Monthly here Sunday.
Platini, who captained his country to victory in the 1984 European Championships, added: "You have to ask yourself what that means for football at a national level.
"England is the traditional home of football but do you think that England will ever win the World Cup again? When you look at the statistics right now - when hardly any English players are in the final stages of the Champions League - it is a good question and the answer is probably no.
"At least it will not happen under the present structures."
England have won the World Cup just once in their history, when they triumphed on home soil to beat the then West Germany 4-2 in the 1966 final at Wembley Stadium.
"Soon in England you will have no English players, no English managers, just foreign speculators," France football great Platini said in an interview with the Observer Sports Monthly here Sunday.
Platini, who captained his country to victory in the 1984 European Championships, added: "You have to ask yourself what that means for football at a national level.
"England is the traditional home of football but do you think that England will ever win the World Cup again? When you look at the statistics right now - when hardly any English players are in the final stages of the Champions League - it is a good question and the answer is probably no.
"At least it will not happen under the present structures."
England have won the World Cup just once in their history, when they triumphed on home soil to beat the then West Germany 4-2 in the 1966 final at Wembley Stadium.