WC 2010: Low marks for Nigerian league at World Cup

Durban- South Africa (PANA) -- Of the 32 teams that qualified for the on-going FI FA World Cup, Nigeria is the only country that did not have local content from i t s domestic league.
In statistics of sources of the 736 players registered for the competition, it i s only Nigeria that sourced all its players from foreign leagues.
This is in contrast to England, Italy and Germany, which have all their players drawn from their domestic top leagues.
South Korea, which edged Nigeria out of the World Cup, has 13 of its 23 players drawn from its internal league.
The percentage of local content is 56.
5.
The sam e almost applied to Greece, which used Nigeria to break its goal drought as well victory in the World Cup.
Fourteen of the 23 players play in Greece, representing almost 70% of the World Cup squad.
The poor rating of the Nigerian league as a source of supply to the World Cup is followed by that of Australia, Cameroon and Cote dâ?Ivoire, which had a player each from their leagues.
Among the African teams, South Africa leads those with home-based players in the squads.
Sixteen of the Bafana Bafana players are from the domestic league.
They are followed by Algeria and Ghana, with three local players each.
Expectedly, most of the World Cup players are drawn from European leagues.
In al l, there are 552 players from the European fields, representing 75% of players a t the World Cup.
Surprisingly, Asian clubs rank next with 68 players, followed by North and Centr al America whose leagues supplied 42 players as against that of South America wh i ch had 36 players.
There are 26 players from the different African leagues in the World Cup.
In country-by-country analysis, England supplied most players for the World Cup.
Of the 736 players, 118 are from the English league.
This is followed by German y , Italy, Spain and France whose leagues supplied 84, 80, 59 and 45 players respectively.
These coun tries' league also supplied the bulk of players to the previous three World Cup e ditions.
Among the clubs, Chelsea, despite having three of its key players â" Mikel Obi, Michael Ballack and Michael Essien â" missing from the World Cup owing to injur ies, still have a commanding share of players at the tournament.
The club is joint top with FC Barcelona in the supply of World Cup players.
Both have 13 and are followed by Liverpool which has 12 players.
Bayern Munich follo w s with 11 players.
Arsenal, Inter, Real Madrid and Panathinaikos have 10 players each.
The trio of Ajax, Juventus and Wolfsburg have nine players each.
Among the playe rs of the latter is Nigeriaâ?s Obafemi Martins.
Though Wolfsburg, a German side, had nine players from eight different countries in the World Cup, none of them is a German! The same almost applies to Arsenal and Inter, which have 10 players each from se ven different countries, but none from either England or Italy.
In contrast, the club 25 April of North Korea is the leading non-European club a nd the same time the only club whose players are all natives.
Seven of those players are in the North Korea World Cup squad.
In all, there are 298 clubs from 53 different countries which had players at the World Cup.
Of countries that did not qualify, Russia has the most players at the World Cup, with 14.
This is in contrast to that of France â?98 when Nigeriaâ?s Austin Eguavoen was the only player from the Russian league.
Next to Russia among countries that failed to make it to South Africa 2010 and y et supplied players is Turkey which league has 13 players at the World Cup.
Scot l and has 10 and Israel six.
Among them are the three Nigerian goalkeepers.