[danielf]

The top flight of English football is awash with money, and attracts the best players in the world. Three out of four Quarter Finalists in the CL are English. Why? The fans are willing to pay shedloads for shirts, tickets, but most importantly Sky. Also, the Premiership PLC has a nice little earner selling the rights overseas (it's probably the most watched non-domestic league).

Meanwhile, England fail to qualify for Euro 2008 because they play mediocre football. Something's gotta give. A colleague of mine recently went on a football trip. His 10 year old son's team played some Dutch teams. He couldn't believe what he saw: 10 year olds playing on flood lit pitches with proper club houses, changing rooms etc. His lad's team play in the local park. As he said: there's no way we could repay the compliment: 'we don't have the facilities'.

Food for thought, me thinks...