The Spanish inquisition

Published on Saturday 4 April 2009 19:53

WHEN THE Premier League was launched in 1992, the plan was to eclipse the might of Serie A and La Liga by making the rich richer, and the best better. Some 17 years on, it's safe to conclude that the mission has been accomplished.

At Anfield on Wednesday night, Liverpool will meet Chelsea in the knockout stages of the Champions League for the fourth time in five seasons. If that cannot be construed as a triumph for England, it is certainly a triumph for the domestic competition that has produced them.

With Manchester United and Arsenal also in this week's quarter-finals, the era of English domination shows no sign of ending. Since the 2004-05 season, when Liverpool came back from the dead in Istanbul, the Premier League has provided nine of the 16 semi-finalists, five of the finalists and two winners. United, of course, are the holders on account of last season's penalty decider against Chelsea. Not since the days of Bob Paisley and Brian Clough has the country been so consistently represented in the closing stages.

Which isn't to say that the two spells have much in common. While Liverpool and Nottingham Forest relied mainly on homegrown players, today's big four have risen to prominence with precious few Englishmen. Only five are likely to play in this week's first leg on Merseyside – Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher of Liverpool, Ashley Cole, John Terry and Frank Lampard of Chelsea – while Arsenal have a solitary native in the shape of Theo Walcott… if he's lucky. United manager Sir Alex Ferguson might rustle up half a dozen, but even he admits that the finished article, invariably from overseas, is difficult to resist at a club like his. None of the four coaches is English, and all of the clubs have foreign backers.

Their power is created by the Premier League's licence to print money. The organisation is filthy rich on the back of a lucrative TV deal, sponsorship and the big, modern stadiums to which fans flock in large numbers. Italy's grounds, built for the 1990 World Cup finals, are antiquated by comparison. The result is more revenue for the English league than any of its counterparts abroad.

None of which is going down too well on the continent. Johan Cruyff is among those worried that the widening gap between rich and, well, not so rich is taking the competition out of football. Michel Platini, the president of UEFA, has demanded greater financial transparency. Alarmed by foreign ownership, massive debts and exorbitant salaries, he and his cohorts have been discussing a "luxury tax" on the big spenders, and new rules to prevent the stockpiling of players.

Sepp Blatter, the president of FIFA, is unhappy that too few clubs are hoovering up too many of the game's best footballers. His solution, which he insists need not violate EU law, is the so-called "6+ 5 rule", which would restrict each team to a maximum of five foreigners. "We have a problem with the concentration of the best players in the world in England," he says.

In England. That's the part many have picked up and run with as evidence that the game's top administrators are less anxious about a monopoly than they are about the nationality of those exerting it. Blatter, they say, wasn't bleating when Italy had their golden years between 1989 and 1998, or when Spain took up the gauntlet after that. For the moment, a global economic downturn will not allow any of Europe's big leagues to embark on a programme of renewal, but there are other ways to bring about a shift in power.

Platini is all for the underdog, the element of surprise that makes football so compelling, but as Arsene Wenger has warned, be careful what you wish for. "It is the responsibility of FIFA to lift the quality of the game as high as possible, not to divide the top players from each other because then you cut the quality and they do not improve any more," says the Arsenal manager. "Football has to create the opportunity for the best to measure themselves with the best. That's what top-level competition is about. In England, that is what's happening at the moment, and I do not know why it should be stopped."

Blatter does. He fears that the repeated purchase of Europe's top players will make the production of them unnecessary. England's clubs might be dominating Europe, but their players are not. That honour goes to Spain, the country best represented in the last eight of the Champions League. Of the 44 men who started for Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United in the second leg of the previous round, only nine were English. Spain's four clubs in the last 16 had twice as many natives. This week, Arsenal's opponents, Villarreal, will try to punch above their economic weight with a clutch of players from the Spanish national side. And, as the fuss continues around England's big four, Barcelona lurk ominously. "The English teams have proved the strength of the Premier League in recent years, but we have to recognise our threats don't just come from England," says Ferguson. "The big one will come from Barcelona."

If the Champions League is a gauge of financial power, the international scene measures ability. Fabio Capello is making healthy progress with England , but only half of his side play for the country's big four clubs, and it is 43 years since they last won a trophy. Spain polished one off last summer. Entrenched at the top of FIFA's world rankings, the winners of Euro 2008 are unbeaten since November 2006, a run that extends to 31 matches. In Wednesday night's World Cup qualifier against Turkey, they came from a goal down to consolidate their position at the top of Group 5. The scorers? Xabi Alonso and Albert Riera, two of the five Spaniards who are regulars at Liverpool.

Their country's part in the Anfield revolution is unmistakable. Steven Gerrard is the team's heartbeat, but the blood running through it is Spanish. In their 4-0 drubbing of Real Madrid last month, Liverpool had more Spaniards than the Spaniards. Against Chelsea on Wednesday night, they will be at it again, with Alonso and Riera joined by Jose Reina, Alvaro Arbeloa and, of course, the breathtaking Fernando Torres, probably the best striker in the world. And all of it is the work of Rafa Benitez, the Spanish coach who has just signed a new, five-year contract with the club.

These grapples between Liverpool and Chelsea tend to be tight affairs, often lacking in entertainment value, but there is just a hint that this one might be different. Benitez, for so long accused of unnecessary caution, followed the four his team scored against Madrid with four against Manchester United and five against Aston Villa. His opposite number, Guus Hiddink, a more adventurous coach than either of his predecessors, will also bring something new to the table. Didier Drogba is back in form, and Torres is hoping to do to Terry what he did to Nemanja Vidic at Old Trafford. All of which amounts to quite a cast. Only a brave man would insist that England is better off without it.