League clubs eye home-grown rule. Good news?

[knowingeye]

news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/7749915.stm
BBC Sport. Wednesday, 26 November 2008

Football League clubs are to hold an extraordinary general meeting in December to discuss plans to implement a 'Home Grown Players' rule in 2009.

The rule would require four players in a 16-man matchday squad to have been registered domestically for at least three years before their 21st birthday.

Football League chairman Lord Mawhinney said, "It is time we made a clear and unequivocal statement of intent."

An overall majority, plus a majority of Championship clubs, must pass the plan.

A player would be deemed "home grown" if he is registered for three entire seasons (or 36 months) prior to turning 21 with a club affiliated to the Football Association or the Football Association of Wales.

The proposal, which is being put forward by the Football League's board of directors and would take effect for the 2009/10 season, is in line with the approach favoured by Uefa rather than the 'six plus five' approach being proposed by world governing body Fifa.


The 'six plus five' proposal stipulates that six of a team's starting XI should be eligible to play for the national team of the country of the club - but the League board has concerns over the legality of the latter in European law.

This means that players will be considered as 'home grown' regardless of their nationality.

The meeting will take place at Derby County's Pride Park on 18 December, and Mawhinney added: "The aim is to establish this principle by setting a threshold that our clubs can accommodate and then to consider raising that level over time.

"It is important we demonstrate that, as a body of clubs, our commitment to youth development is total.

"Not only are we pulling out all the stops to develop these young players in the first place, we are also ensuring that they have the opportunity to show their talent in the first team.

"Fourteen of the 23-man England squad that beat Germany in Berlin, last week, were developed by youth development programmes at Football League clubs. Looking ahead, we want to increase that proportion even further."

According to the Football League, there are 8,500 young footballers aged between eight and 18 on the books of their 72 clubs, with 22 academies and 46 centres of excellence in operation.

[Lakeland Potter]

Probably a VERY small step in the right direction. But it will still advantage the richer clubs who will be more able than the poorer clubs to recruit very young foreign players to get them qualified as "home grown" by the time they are 21. It does get around the European rules on freedom to work though which FIFA's plan clearly doesn't.

[Davef]

I wonder if some of the clubs who thought this out include the likes of Charlton, Southampton, Norwich and Leicester who are dying on their arses financially and who wouldn't have given a second thought for this kind of thing a few seasons ago?

[A-teen_six_T3]

I think it's the very good news for the ENGLISH game

The thing is fornside, I see your point with regards to clubs getting good young foreign players. Liverpool, Man U and even chelsea have over the last couple of years have brought the next big thing at the ages of 15,16,17 but I can't think of any who have made it. Liverpool are always buying foreigners for their reserve and youth/academy leagues

[crowey]

I don't think it will make the slightest difference & certainly the Frogs (Platini & Sarkozy) will not agree to it anyway - all they are after is some TV money from the Prem. The EU working at it's worst as usual

[A-teen_six_T3]

Surely it's got bugger all to do with Platini and co

The football league is a separate product to FIFA or UEFA

[mermaidsal]

Good news as far as it goes but imo six not four would be a better place to start. I'm not remotely against foreign players, they've done nothing but good for the game, but we need something like this to make sure our leagues don't just become an international circus for the highest bidder like F1.

[Lakeland Potter]

Sal, they do say that the figure is likely to be increased over time. Presumably the intial figure is set as low as four in order to have the maximum chance of getting the proposal the required majority in the vote.

[followyoudown]

I can see the idea behind it and it may be just me but as I read it I can't see how it would make a blind bit of difference, every team in the football league would easily pass the test currently as would every premiership team even Chelsea, Arsenal and Man Utd as the likes of Joe Cole, Frank Lampard, Rio Ferdinand, Wayne Rooney, Theo Walcott would all count as homegrown as it says the player has to be registered with a club for three years etc etc doesn't say anywhere they have to be registered with the club they're currently playing for 3 years before 21 to qualify.