Ex-Tory leader accuses Liverpool FC of damaging English football

Jan 24 2008 Liverpool Daily Post

IAIN DUNCAN SMITH has accused Liverpool FC of damaging English football by poaching teenagers from abroad instead of nurturing local talent.

The former Conservative leader picked out the Anfield club as part of a wide-ranging attack on the growing number of foreign footballers in the Premier League.

Leading a Commons debate, Mr Duncan Smith, a keen amateur footballer in his youth, targeted Liverpool’s link with the Hungarian club MTK Budapest.

Last summer, Anfield manager Rafael Benitez signed three of MTK’s teenagers, striker Krisztian Nemeth, Andras Simon and goalkeeper Peter Gulacsi.

Mr Duncan Smith warned the move was part of a trend that meant the number of foreign youngsters at Premier club academies was now 15% and rising.

Meanwhile, fans of the England national side had to suffer its “abject performances”, and their nation crashing out of the Euro 2008 competition.

He told MPs: “Youth players should not be in a position where they are competing with youngsters from potentially every nation in the world for a tiny, limited number of academy places.

“Inevitably, large numbers of English players are unceremoniously dropped.”

A spokesperson for Liverpool FC said: “It is ridiculous to say that we don’t have a commitment to local players.

“The club have won the FA youth cup for the past two seasons.

“Last year at Old Trafford, of the 11 who began the game against Manchester United, 10 had come through the academy, with nine of them being Scousers. Six of those local lads were promoted to Gary Ablett’s reserve team squad at Melwood.

“We should also remember that local lads of the standard of Steven Gerrard, Jamie Carragher, Robbie Fowler, Michael Owen and Steve McManaman have all come through the academy and gone on to star for both Liverpool and England.”

The MP said just 37% of first-team squad players in the Premier League were English, compared to 61% homegrown in Spain, 63% in Italy, above 50% in Germany and 62% in France.

He suggested the FA was too scared of the Premier League to tackle the dominance of foreign players, although he stopped short of calling for quotas, or government intervention.

And he poured scorn on the claim that the Premiership was attracting the world’s best players, claiming that only a minority were good enough for their national sides.

In contrast, the former Tory leader praised Manchester United, both for employing full-time coaches for under-11s and for bringing through local youngsters to the first team.