Wenger is right to oppose Blatter's latest silly scheme - 2007年10月12日
Arsène Wenger is spot on: Sepp Blatter's proposal to introduce a foreign player quota would be a backward step for football.
They just don't get it. Arsène Wenger's inner thoughts were almost legible last Friday as he faced questions from the nation's media. Scribes were pumping him for an opinion on Sepp Blatter's proposal to introduce a foreign player quota, and some were so strident in their interrogations that it was obvious they were seeking nothing less than a full and frank confession from the Frenchman - an apologetic admission that he and his cursed fondness for fielding foreigners foils England's World Cup ambitions. "Do you really think that if I regularly started with five average English players, England would win the World Cup?" scoffed Wenger, almost chuckling with incredulity.
He said he believed, like Sir Trevor Brooking and the Premier League, that earlier and better coaching was the key to enhancing a country's performances, and also hinted that England already had sufficient playing quality to have triumphed more often and has been betrayed not by clubs who recruit on the basis of merit rather than birthplace, but by bad management or bad luck. Most of all, however, he intimated that he didn't much care about international football.
If he kept grinning, it was probably because he knows that Blatter's wheeze has little chance of ever being enshrined in European law. And also, perhaps, because this profoundly rational Frenchman considers international competition to be a gaudy fetish, and is amused by primitive folk who continue to worship it.
Certainly Wenger does not consider winning the World Cup to be the apotheosis of footballing achievement. How could it be? International competition is to football what religion is to science - an impediment to exploration and evolution. By definition national teams are subject to constraints. Forcing a manager to only pick players from a certain country is like ordering a painter to only use red, white and blue. Nationalistic mumbo-jumbo is an affront to creativity and progress. "Blatter's trying to protect the World Cup [albeit while going about it in a wrongheaded way], I'm trying to protect the quality of the game - they're not the same thing," reasoned Wenger.
Sure, it used to be that internationals shaped football, giving global exposure to different tactics and techniques. The Magnificent Magyars of the 50s didn't just entertain, they educated. Ditto the fluid 4-2-4 Brazilians of '58 and Holland's Total Football of the 70s. No longer. Worldwide television coverage, increased club wealth and wholesale movement of players have changed that, offering resources and a rate of change that no national team can compete with. Clubs were always the laboratories; now, via the Champions League and other high-profile leagues and tournaments, they're also the pushers. The World Cup remains great fun, but more for its festival-like feel than the quality of its football.
There are some in Wenger's homeland who cling to the delusion that, whenever he decides to leave Arsenal, he will amble into retirement via a scenic stint in charge of France. That is to misunderstand the man and his mission (and to ignore the fact that in an interview in L'Equipe last month he said, like a true alchemist, that he might finish his career "in an American university or somewhere where football is developing"). If Blatter's scheme were ever to be imposed, sabotaging the Arsenal experiment-in-progress and sapping the Frenchman's élan vital, Wenger would almost certainly walk straight out of the game.
Thus football would be partially orphaned. And neither England nor anyone else would be any closer to winning the World Cup. In other words, Blatter's proposal would result in a senseless waste of human life-force.
反对布拉特 温格是对的
他们并不懂。温格上周五在面对英国媒体提问时,他的想法其实很明白。记者们努力打探他针对布拉特提出的外国球员配给制的看法,有些人固执于他们的争论,很显然,他们不过想从法国人这里找到充分且直接的答案――充满歉意地承认他以及他那被骂得狗血喷头的对外国球员的青睐会毁掉英格兰世界杯的梦想。“你真的认为我经常派上5个平庸的英格兰球员,英格兰就能拿世界杯?”温格不屑地说,怀疑之情溢于言表。- 国内最大的阿森
纳简体中文球迷社区: X' u$ u0 T# _
枪手论坛' x8 C; F8 L' Y. `
他说他认为,正如布鲁琼金爵士和英超一样,青训以及更好的教练,是提高一个国家整体水平的关键。他同时也说英格兰已经有了充分的能力去赢取胜利。而阻碍了他们的并不是俱乐部凭借才能而不是出生地招纳球员,而是欠佳的教练以及不好的运气。但最重要的,他表示说他对国家队足球并不感兴趣。
国内最大的阿森纳简体中文球迷社区5 n% `7 p9 {7 U' d# x
如果他一直在笑,那也许是因为他知道布拉特的主意在欧洲法律面前机会很小。同时,也许这位深刻而理智的法国人认为国家队比赛不过是华而不实的偶像崇拜,他笑的是还有那些愚昧的人们继续膜拜着它。枪手论
坛" M% S+ L( I5 n, V# M6 ^1 X! S
- 国内最大的阿森纳简体中文球迷社区! m" D2 Y. A0 z6 k
显然,温格并不认为赢得世界杯就是足球成就的神化。怎么会是呢?国家队足球对于足球就如同宗教对于科学――妨碍着其探索和进步。国家队受到各种约束。逼着教练从某一国家挑选球员就好像命令一个画家只能用红、白、蓝来作画。民族主义的崇拜是对创造力以及进步的阻碍。“布拉特在保护世界杯,我是在保护比赛的质量――它们不是一回事。”2 y c: J8 f"
z f: H* M: i) Z S
阿森纳中国网,阿森纳中文网络社区,Arsenal.com.cn6 u! i3 ]$ R1 K5 U" }3 F
确实,在以前,国家队影响着足球,它们将不同的战术及技术展示向全球。50年代匈牙利足球不只赏心悦目,同时也有教育意义。58年巴西424的流畅以及70年代荷兰的全攻全守。现在不了。全世界的电视转播,俱乐部越来越富裕,球员的转会改变了这一切,它们提供的资源以及变化水平没有一个国家队能够与之相比。俱乐部是永远的实验室;现在,欧冠和其他高水平的联赛及比赛,都是足球的推动力量。世界杯依然非常有趣,但更多的是因为它像个节日而非足球的水平。
在温格的家乡,依然有一些人执着于这一幻觉,当他决定离开阿森纳的时候,他会轰轰烈烈执教法国队然后再退休。这是对他以及他的使命的误解。如果布拉特的计划实施,便破坏了阿森纳的实验,打击了法国人生命冲动,温格几乎会肯定径直离开足球。
于是,足球将成为孤儿。英格兰或者其他人也不再有可能赢得世界杯。换言之,布拉特的提议带来的是人类无意义的浪费 |