Talk of bringing back limits on foreign players may
induce shudders in those Manchester United fans who recall their
team's 1994 humbling in Barcelona.
Uefa rules meant clubs could field only three foreign players,
plus two 'assimilated' players who had come through their youth
set-up, and Alex Ferguson decided to leave out goalkeeper Peter
Schmeichel.
The Dane's replacement, Gary Walsh, endured a torrid
night as Johan Cruyff's 'Dream Team' ran riot, scoring four
unanswered goals to prompt familiar bout of soul-searching about
the state of English football.
There were other factors in United's mauling at the
hands of Hristo Stoitchkov and Romario. Barcelona were still
smarting following their 4-0 humiliation by Fabio Capello's AC
Milan in the previous season's final and were determined to show
the continent they had not been crushed by that experience and
United were also without the suspended Eric Cantona.
But if Schmeichel had been in goal, perhaps United's
defence would not have been so comprehensively taken apart.
Ferguson, however, turned the experience to his club's advantage.
Before this season's semi-final triumph over Barcelona, he referred
to it as a "great occasion" for United, as it taught them valuable
lessons about ball retention in Europe.
The year after that chastening night, the restrictions
on foreign players were ditched under the Bosman ruling, leading to
another round of nazel gazing about the state of the national
game.
However, the United side that beat Chelsea in last
week's Champions League final perfectly fitted Sepp Blatter's
'six-plus-five' principle - Englishmen Wes Brown, Rio Ferdinand,
Owen Hargreaves, Michael Carrick, Paul Scholes and Wayne Rooney
started in Moscow. Chelsea fielded four England players - Ashley
Cole, John Terry, Frank Lampard and Joe Cole, which would fulfil
Blatter's demands in the first two years after his proposed
changes.