Oh times, oh manners! It has been almost 25 years since the famous Bosman Law broke down the boundaries in European football and paved the way for its internationalization.

The first known team to abandon their national identity and embrace the new age model was Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal: there were many games in both the Premier League and the Champions League without a single suitable player in their starting lineup. National Team!

This colorful mosaic has become a nasty habit over time. Most of the teams, especially the rich contenders for the main trophies, have broken away from their roots and are no longer a mirror of the cities and countries they represent. With inflated purses, they do not care about the internal production process and feed themselves by collecting a football flower from all over the Earth, while most of them do not retain a rudimentary, even national identity.

This phenomenon has begun to strongly influence Greek football in recent years. If until recently there was a good ratio of Greeks and foreigners, now our teams remind us … the Tower of Babel. Homegrown players make up a tiny minority, with foreign players receiving the lion’s share of contracts and playing time. Today it is easier to see Greek players in the Champions League, even if we are not represented there by any team, than in the Super League 1 derby!

The picture in the recent game between Panathinaikos and Ari is typical: the only Greek in the starting lineup was Ioannidis, and he was from… all of a sudden. If Sporar had been in full form, he would have remained on the bench. When the substitution was made and until Vagiannidis took the place of the injured Aitor, 22 foreign players, two foreign coaches and four foreign referees were on the field for 20 minutes! The only Greeks were… sports fans in the stands!

This year in the Champions League, we saw Jakoumakis score in a Celtic shirt under Angelos Postecoglou. We’ve seen Tsimika in a Liverpool jersey, Vlachodimos defending Benfica’s home, Alexandropoulos at Sporting CP, Antonis Papadopoulos getting playing time for Borussia Dortmund. We have also seen some Greek referees who, although not assigned to Greek league derbies, manage games in European competitions, Sidiropoulos being a recent example. Something similar applies to football players. Following the logic of “there is no prophet in one’s own country”, many Greeks make their careers abroad without ever taking the lead in the Super League!

The Greeks are disappearing in the Greek league, even if the statistics flatter their image. According to CIES (Swiss Football Observatory), last year the ratio in Super League 1 was 60.2% foreigners and 38.2% Greek footballers, which does not tell the whole truth. Most of the natives simply fill out their teams’ rosters with little or no participation in matches. According to PSAT, in 2010 the corresponding ratio was 55-45 in favor of the Greeks, who at that time had a clearly more influential role in the game of their teams.

The backbone of the national team now competes on teams outside of the country.

The most extreme example of the Tower of Babel in the Greek alliance is undoubtedly Ares. Yes, it has seven Greeks out of 29 players, but in fact only Christos Hatzioannu played a few minutes in two games. The rest are usually not even on assignment.

Not only is it impressive that Aris started with 11 foreigners in all 9 of his Super League games, but that he almost always starts with 11 players from 11 different countries, meaning he doesn’t even have a base from the same football school!

Without exaggeration, far more Greek players play in foreign teams than those who play an active role in two professional categories in Greece, even if their presence was limited to 28 foreign leagues this year from 33 last year, 24 of which are in Europe .

A career abroad is always an outlet for athletes, especially in leagues like Greece, where toxicity and poor working conditions are a strong deterrent for them, even if they are interested in those who are not usually interested, the so-called “big groups”.

The opening of the borders weakened the national character of many leagues of the world, and not only the Greek one. And this is of little concern to the heads of federations, team owners, coaches, journalists and fans.

In the era of globalization, this is no longer strange, even if there is no special emotional connection between the “legionary” football players and the teams, and with them the fans.

In reality, however, the changing physiognomy of the leagues will directly affect the football identity of each country, cracking not only in the “mirror” of national teams, but also in the production process, cutting the umbilical cord that should give life to football, highlighting a new generation of talent …

Super League 2 effort

Internationalization concerns not only the top teams that sacrifice everything in pursuit of the championship, but also those that are in the tail or smaller categories that have played the role of “kennels” for many decades. In an attempt to respond, the Super League 2 teams passed on to the CAP the requirement that at least three Greek players (with the right to participate in the national team or a Greek passport) be present in the squad at all times. The remaining eight spots can be filled by community players and a maximum of five foreign players. Such restrictions in the past have created confusion, confusion, and cancellations without ultimately benefiting, with the typical example of Russia, which, although it introduced the mandatory participation of six locals in the starting lineup, its league and national team were weakened. The solution to such a complex problem will not be given by laws, but only by the football logic itself.