Athletic Bilbao's player recruitment policy

[Rozay]

The Irish players you mention would never have developed into the players they became had they stayed in LOI. Ireland is too small to expect that every club would have decent players.
Secondly some of Ireland’s greatest moments in football wouldn’t have been seen - big Jack wouldn’t have coached, Ray Houghton wouldn’t have scored against England and Italy, you would never have seen the likes of Townsend, McGrath, cascarino and Aldridge pull on the green jersey

Not that I’m in favour, but I think his point is that it levels out if everyone is doing it. So there wouldn’t necessarily be the same advantage of these players going to England or elsewhere.

 

[golden_blunder]

Not that I’m in favour, but I think his point is that it levels out if everyone is doing it. So there wouldn’t necessarily be the same advantage of these players going to England or elsewhere.

England is a bigger country and Man Utd us a bigger pull than Galway Utd. A good portion of Irish players would drift away to other sports (soccer is not first in Ireland) and other professions. It simply wouldn’t be a level playing field

 

[Wolf1992]

How they were treated by Franco and Spain you cannot be surprised that they want to protect their heritage now that they can.

Be sure there wouldn't any fuss about this if a club only let's people from a brown country to join them, but as soon as its a european minority such as basque people doing it, everyone don't care about preserving heritage anymore and considere it "racism".

Double standards everywhere, and i say this as a brown man btw.

 

[Wolf1992]

I personally think football would be very interesting if all clubs followed Bilbao's policy. It would remove alot of this mercenary nonsesne forcing inflated prices and wages. It would all come down to how well each area a team is in to fund grass root football and overhall under age football with proper trained coaches.

It could give smaller leagues like the League of Ireland a chance to compete rather than losing players over sea's albeit the FAI spending less on their own boardroom mercenaries and more into the grassroots.

Can you imagine having tough determined Scottish sides like the historic Celtic squad in the 60's.

Scouting would be more or less the back bone to the club rather than a transfer committee.

Anyone feel i am wrong or?

Money-hungry big corporations would be the first ones against it, cause it would hurt their profits.
I mean we are gonna have a WC in Qatar(who has never achieved anything in Football) next year...that tells you everything you need to know.

 

[duffer]

Sorry but is the bone of your argument ‘only local players for local clubs’?

The Royston Vasey argument. "This is a local shop for local people. There's nothing for you here".

 

[criticalanalysis]

Reminds me of a cafe near me that has a sign on the front saying "No English", it's been there for years and it doesn't appear that anyone has made much fuss about it. There are plenty of other cafes to choose from.

Which shop is this?

No English as in 'we don't speak English' (not that it makes it's 'better') or No English people?!

 

[FCBarcelona]

I find way more interesting the football pre-Bosman. Small countries could grew a good generation and make a run in Europe, and they could retain most of the talent longer due to the restrictions. It is impossible today.

How they were treated by Franco and Spain you cannot be surprised that they want to protect their heritage now that they can.

You know that their philosophy was settled decades before Franco took over Spain, didn't you? In fact, it was caused due to a dispute started by Real Sociedad.
Besides, you talk like Franco was a dictator only in the Basque country area. Like the rest of the country didn't suffered a bit.
Finally, I think Basques will be way more happy with how they are treated by Spain rather France. Now, and in the past.

Basque nationalism was born in the last decades of the XIX century (like many European nationalisms) with Sabino Arana as the main responsible. If you read his ideas you will find a lot of resembles with the nazi regime. Basque have always been very proud Spanish. Many of the Spanish Empire heroes were actually Basque.
Miguel de Unamuno (a far superior element of the history) that lived in the same period wrote:
We Basques are, because we are Basques, twice Spanish.
We Basques have gone to all the wars in which Spain had to be defended; we went, they did not take us.... we went as Basques and as Spaniards

By the way, if they could form a separate nation they would. They are in the same boat as the Catalans.

No, they would not. Independence hunger is in historic minimum (around ~20%).

In Catalonia, the only elections that were really presented as a "referendum", the "stay" side got more votes. They got less representatives because rural areas (where independent parties are stronger) are overweighted, but they got less votes overall.

 

[golden_blunder]

The Royston Vasey argument. "This is a local shop for local people. There's nothing for you here".

I find it disgusting, it’s like the 70s all over again. He’s suggesting football sets itself back decades.

 

[abundance]

Precisely what it’s for.

So, what is it that, precisely, makes it ok at national level and not at local level?

 

[Superden]

Arguments about respecting local traditions and maintaing local culture and heritage are the top of a slippery slope. You always here arguments from the far right couched in these terms...

 

[Siorac]

Be sure there wouldn't any fuss about this if a club only let's people from a brown country to join them, but as soon as its a european minority such as basque people doing it, everyone don't care about preserving heritage anymore and considere it "racism".

Double standards everywhere, and i say this as a brown man btw.

What is a 'brown country'?

And there's not much fuss about Athletic Bilbao's policy either - that's actually pretty much the point of this thread. You'll hear more about it than, say, about CD Guadalajara who have a Mexican-only policy because Spanish football is simply much more popular than Mexican football.

 

[duffer]

So, what is it that, precisely, makes it ok at national level and not at local level?

It's sporting competition between nations and everyone has the same selection criteria.

Club football is competition between football clubs. As far as I know, Bilbao is the only top club with an added selection criteria.

 

[Wolf1992]

Arguments about respecting local traditions and maintaing local culture and heritage are the top of a slippery slope.

What's wrong with respecting local traditions and heritage?

If you are english, you can't fuss about it, considering what Great Britain did abroad to other cultures... including the irish.

 

[RoyH1]

I don't understand the fuss with Bilbao's club criteria. They're a symbol for an independent Euskadi. As long as they don't discriminate local kids on the basis of colour or race (which they don't) I think it's not a problem.

 

[JPRouve]

Arguments about respecting local traditions and maintaing local culture and heritage are the top of a slippery slope. You always here arguments from the far right couched in these terms...

I'll just share that with you. The only slippery slope is the blind acceptance of hegemony.

 

[MayfieldsFinest]

The Irish players you mention would never have developed into the players they became had they stayed in LOI. Ireland is too small to expect that every club would have decent players.
Secondly some of Ireland’s greatest moments in football wouldn’t have been seen - big Jack wouldn’t have coached, Ray Houghton wouldn’t have scored against England and Italy, you would never have seen the likes of Townsend, McGrath, cascarino and Aldridge pull on the green jersey

In fairness McGrath was 4 weeks old when he moved to Ireland and was born to an Irish mum.

 

[golden_blunder]

In fairness McGrath was 4 weeks old when he moved to Ireland and was born to an Irish mum.

I’m going strictly by his rules so don’t go making exceptions now

 

[Superden]

I'll just share that with you. The only slippery slope is the blind acceptance of hegemony.

Replacing one form or hegemony with another is not neccesarily beneficial. I haven't read much Gramsci so I can't really add any more to that..

 

[Uniquim]

I personally think football would be very interesting if all clubs followed Bilbao's policy. It would remove alot of this mercenary nonsesne forcing inflated prices and wages. It would all come down to how well each area a team is in to fund grass root football and overhall under age football with proper trained coaches.

It could give smaller leagues like the League of Ireland a chance to compete rather than losing players over sea's albeit the FAI spending less on their own boardroom mercenaries and more into the grassroots.

Can you imagine having tough determined Scottish sides like the historic Celtic squad in the 60's.

Scouting would be more or less the back bone to the club rather than a transfer committee.

Anyone feel i am wrong or?

That's what it was like way back in the days. When Red Star Belgrade would win the Champions League, Rosenborg would make the group stages every year, and Panathinaikos got to European finals. Lots of fun.

 

[JPRouve]

Replacing one form or hegemony with another is not neccesarily beneficial. I haven't read much Gramsci so I can't really add any more to that..

You are not replacing one form of hegemony with an other unless you somehow believe that people should be forced to abandon their culture, their language without fighting? They are not trying to impose their culture on others, they are not claiming that their culture is superior, they are simply protecting it from extinction within their region, everyone is welcome in Basque country, it's a very welcoming culture but they also care about tradition.

 

[Iker Quesadillas]

Arguments about respecting local traditions and maintaing local culture and heritage are the top of a slippery slope.

They don't call it the slippery slope fallacy for nothing.

 

[Rood]

Bilbao is just a club with a huge basis on their academy - not that different from the likes of Manchester United, Barcelona or Ajax who pride themselves on promoting young players from within. The difference is that they are wholly dependant on that with few options for buying players in the transfer market

I always prefer to see academy players making it to the first team rather than big money transfers - the more academy players in the first team, the better. Thats why the 'Class Of 92' are iconic

The vast amounts of money and power in football has of course has changed everything so its great to see a club like Athletic Bilbao hanging on to the traditional way a football club was intrinsically linked to the local community

 

[Wonder Pigeon]

Just bumping because last night Inaki Williams broke the record for consecutive La Liga appearances with his 203rd game in a row for Bilbao, some record.