Merrick labels imports a risk
ALLOWING more foreign players into the A-League is “ridiculous” and will threaten the survival of some clubs, veteran coach Ernie Merrick says.
Merrick says the gap will increase between cashed-up clubs and financial battlers if the number of visa players rises.
A-League clubs are allowed a maximum of five visa players but there’s a push to increase that number to six.
Merrick, who has coached in the A-League in all but one season of the competition since its 2005 inception, says the number of foreigners should be reduced.
“I would prefer that we’re down to four to give more Australian players an opportunity,” Merrick said.
“But not five, six, they’re talking about going up to seven I think — that would be ridiculous for us, the development of Australian football.
“We don’t have the finances, and I’m talking about any club in the A-League really, to bring in top quality players to make up the teams. If you’re in the English Premier League you can do it, or in La Liga or in Germany and then you can bring in lots of visa players and the standard is very high.
“But we would be bringing in pretty low-class players. We would be better developing Australian players.”
Merrick cited the scenario in his native country Scotland as evidence of the damage done by permitting too many foreign players.
Merrick’s Newcastle Jets yesterday announced Northern Ireland under-21 international Bobby Burns would join the club on a season-long loan deal from Scottish Premier League club Heart of Midlothian.
“Hearts have got 30 senior professional players, 17 of them are foreigners,” Merrick said.
“And you ask me why Scotland can’t qualify for a World Cup any more? It’s pretty blatant.
“Foreigners that are coming into Scotland are very low standard. And that would happen here. You can only afford one or two decent ones.
“If you had seven (foreign) players, the big teams would just flood them if they could afford them ... most of the other teams wouldn’t survive.”
Merrick also launched a fresh blast on refereeing standards after his prized overseas signing Wes Hoolahan suffered a serious ankle injury in Tuesday night’s 1-0 FFA Cup quarter-final loss to Adelaide, which will sideline him for at least three months.
Hoolahan, a veteran of 43 internationals for Ireland, limped off after a tangle with Adelaide’s Ryan Kitto.
“He got kicked from behind and he twisted his ankle forward — and then he got a free kick against him,” Merrick said. “I have been in this league a very long time and the refereeing hasn’t improved.”