For most of Sven Goran Erikson’s reign as England manager, I have argued with my friends about football betting and the correctness of foreign managers for international teams in sport.

It’s not necessarily the point that they won’t have the passion and desire of a native manager but more that, if 2 countries are going to play each other, the team - which after all includes the coaching and management staff - should all be from that country!

An argument against my reasoning was that, with reference to football, countries that are behind in the game and may still be developing, won’t have the ability to catch up with the dominant international sides unless they receive coaching and management from the best in the world. I agree that this is the case and I think their may be a case for concessions for these countries until they reach a certain level, from which they should be expected to stand on their own feet and produce good managers of their own.

Another argument was “How are England ever going to win for the Football World Cup if we don’t try to get the best manager in the world?” Well, basically, I feel that if we can’t produce our own manager, but we might have the best players in the world (hyperthetically speaking of course!!!) then we as a country are just not good enough! Look at Brazil - in their victories in the world cup they deserved to win because they were complete Brazilian teams. So, if we can’t win games with British management then that is the area that needs to be focused on to improve our internal development.

More so, from my point of view though, is my point above : For example, If international sports teams are going to compete against others then each team should be made up of personnel, including coaches and Management, from that country. If we has won the tournament in 2006, I would have regarded it as slightly hollow. Let’s see how the 2010 World Cup goes.

The same applies to our national cricket team at present. No dis-respect to Duncan Fletcher, but if we win the ICC Cricket World Cup this year (I did say “if”) then is it “England” who have won or will Zimabwe be celibrating it as theirs?