The new rules, agreed by all Premier League club chairmen, state that clubs must name a squad of up to 25 players, with 8 of those being ‘home-grown’ players. Furthermore, no more than 17 of those players can be over 21 and not home-grown.
What Makes A Player Home-Grown?
The term ‘home-grown’ has left many football fans confused into thinking it means players must be English and from their own clubs academy, but this is not necessarily the case.
The definition of a home-grown player according to the Premier League is a player that has been trained for three years under the age of 21 by somebody within the English and Welsh professional system.
Effectively, this new quota is not a foreign player limitation. There is nothing to stop a side fielding a team consisting of no English players, providing some of the foreign players were purchased from the age of 18.
Currently, every Premier League side’s squad for the 2009/10 season would meet the criteria for next season’s quota. Chelsea currently have the fewest home-grown players registered with 8, but that number is acceptable. Aston Villa possesses the most home-grown players under the new rules with a massive 24 players meeting the new regulations.
Home-Grown Player Rule Disadvantages
Naturally, there are some faults with the new player quotation rules. For instance, many wanted rules to limit the amount of foreign players within the English game but this quota doesn’t do that.
A good example of this is seen at Arsenal. Although they currently have few English players in their squad, Theo Walcott and Jack Wilshire being the two most prominent, many of their foreign players will be classed as home-grown.
Cesc Fabregas, for example, joined Arsenal at the age of 15, meaning he was there for three years before the age of 21. Therefore, Fabregas is as home-grown as both John Terry at Chelsea and Steven Gerrard at Liverpool despite the fact he is Spanish.
It will also cause problems with players from Scotland and Northern Ireland. As these players are British, in the past they have never been considered foreign. Now though, some will be and some won’t be.
Darren Fletcher (Scottish) and Jonny Evans (N.Irish) will count as home-grown players for Man United, having come through their youth system, but James McFadden and Garry O’Connor (both Scottish) at Birmingham will not.
Home-Grown Player Rule Advantages
As mentioned earlier, a club can still purchase an 18 year old foreign player, and by the time he is 21 he can be classed as home-grown. However, in that meantime, the club will still need 8 home-grown players and having English players will still be the easiest way to meet the regulations.
Most professional players in England were brought up at English academies from very young ages. This means by their sixteenth birthday they could have already been at a club for 3 years counting them as home-grown already. Whereas a club would have to wait for a young foreign player to play for three years, Englishmen would still be the quickest way to meet the quota.
So this makes it highly likely that more English players will get the chance to play in the world’s best league, which should be good news for the future of the England national team. Equally, more money will be invested into the clubs academies making the chances of creating the next Wayne Rooney or Frank Lampard a greater possibility.
