Redknapp: Xbox killing England's football talent

via Computer and Video Games


Portsmouth FC boss Harry Redknapp fears that "Xbox culture" is turning English youth off of football, forcing managers to search for players abroad.

Redknapp has insisted that England's gaming culture is the reason for the lack of domestic talent, and managers shouldn't be the target of criticism.

"I'm fed up with managers being made scapegoats for the state of our domestic game," he wrote in his national newspaper column. "The English working class is turning its back on football - and that is not my fault.

"It may sound old and corny but when I was growing up, working class lads like me in the East End lived and breathed football.

"Now I rarely see a kickabout in the park. All I see are the dazzling lights of bedroom windows from the glare of TVs and computers. It seems football cannot compete with an Xbox."

Redknapp adds: "I do have a lot of foreign players at Portsmouth but believe me I'd love nothing more than to field a team of 11 so-called 'home-grown' lads born within the city limits. But it has become harder and harder to find enough kids of the kind of quality required to make the grade without buying an air ticket."

The former West Ham United manager is now looking to Africa as a source of real-life footy passion. He said: "Maybe they have the hunger and drive that working class boys of England had 30 years ago but now is replaced by video game passion."

Is Redknapps argument justified? Some kids might prefer a virtual stadium to a tiny park kick about, but real football and a game of PES are not the same activity at all.