Over A Pint / Hashing Out The Homegrown Rule

The UEFA boss has put his foot down...

With the the first kick of this year’s English Premier League, a new era dawns in English top flight football.  Under intense pressure from the mandate of UEFA president, Michel Platini, for clubs to be both financially sound and comprised mostly of the same national origin as the league in which they play, the Premier League and it’s head, Richard Scudamore, introduced what has become generally known as the Homegrown Rule.

Essentially, the rule states that on 1 September, every club in the Premier League must submit a roster of twenty-five eligible players, which cannot be changed until the January transfer window.  Further, eight of those players must be what the league considers homegrown.

“A home-grown player means one who, irrespective of his nationality or age, has been registered with any club affiliated to the Football Association or the Football Association of Wales for a period, continuous or not, of three entire seasons or 36 months prior to his 21st birthday (or the end of the season during which he turns 21).” –The Premier League’s official definition of the term.

... and the Premier League gives ground.

In addition to the 25 players, a club may also sign an unlimited number of players who are younger than or have turned twenty-one in the calendar year in which the season begins.

Those who are for it have proclaimed it as necessary to revitalise the national squad.  Opponents have branded it UEFA’s way of knocking the Premiership off its lofty perch as the number one European league.  As the season approaches, the argument has heated up like a kettle on the boil.

Now, the publisher of WFC, Steven Jones and our Championship and Ligue 1 correspondent, Tapesh Patel, shoulder their way into the melee.  Actually, they’re just trying to get a seat at the bar, where they can relax and, each sipping a frothy pint of Guinness, give their thoughts on the matter.  Let’s listen in.

One 'homegrown' player...

...and another, neither of which will ever play for the England National Team

Steve: On the whole, rules in football are put in place to even the playing field. Platini’s attempt to prevent large clubs from racking up massive debts, by requiring that no club may spend more than its incoming revenue, is an example. I’m all for making things fair, but I feel the 25 man squad with 8 homegrown players is going to cause problems at every level and it’s quite hard to see what they’re trying to achieve by introducing this rule.

It seems as though it has been set in place to tackle more than one problem.  Yes, you must have 8 players who have played in the English or Welsh leagues for 3 years before reaching 21 years of age, but they needn’t be English.  They could be Italian, Polish, Chinese or whatever.  How does that serve the development of the English game?  With such ambiguities, I wonder if the Homegrown Rule is going to accomplish anything at all.

Tapesh: To be honest, it shows that the FA has the national team’s best interests at heart. As well as attempting to solve the Three Lion’s problems on the home front, the FA has had to work around EU policy as best it can to implement a rule, which to be honest, England desperately needs. I mean, it’s only fair that an English league should contain some English players, right? With the current laws on immigration, it’s difficult to think of any better solution.

I think it might have been a bit easier to introduce the home-grown rule in increments, like the proposed introduction of the 6+5 rule, but I don’t think most clubs will have a huge problem in having 8 homegrown players in their squad. It’s definitely a good way of encouraging clubs to develop their academies, as well, something which will benefit all parties in the long term.

Do the big clubs, especially Wenger's Gunners, have an almost insurmountable head start in adopting to the new rule?

Steve: My main concern is with the medium and smaller sized clubs. So-called ‘homegrown players’ are going to be hotly sought after.  Premier League clubs competing on lesser budgets, who have thrived on foreign talent, will be relegated to signing the dregs of the homegrown barrel.  The cream, which, as is said, rises to the top, will go to the richer clubs, with their more extensive scouting networks and cash on hand.

As well, other countries do not have these limitations.  Not burdened by such restrictions, European clubs are going to find it easier to fill their team with talented foreign players, leaving a clear gap in the level of talent between the Premiership and other top leagues.

There’s another issue here, in that  the Premiership has marketed itself very successfully abroad.  It is a truly international league.  Most Premiership fans are not English and do not support England.  Why should their weekly football suffer because the FA can’t get things right at a grassroots level?

...And Cole, who has played in red previously, inspired.

For Hodgson, Shelvey was a creative signing...

Tapesh: Most clubs have already met the homegrown quota without their squads getting worse, so I don’t think there will be an issue of England lagging behind other countries in terms of the Champions League. Spain has implemented a similar rule, and Barcelona and Real Madrid are arguably the two best teams in Europe at the moment.

It’s true that most Premiership fans are from abroad, but it’s still an English league, whatever its ambitions.  I don’t think that the inclusion of 8 homegrown players should deter any squad, if they invest in the right ones.  Liverpool is usually identified as the club which needs to do the most to comply with the new rule.  Roy Hodgson has gone out and, on a bare bones budget, shrewdly managed to sign Joe Cole, as well as a gifted English youngster in Jonjo Shelvey.

As I see it, the top clubs will probably end up taking the best young talent, both from England and elsewhere, then loan them out within the league to gain experience, if required. Training with the best should, in theory, improve them.

Steve: The point about Real and Barca is interesting. I believe those teams are more desirable destinations for foreign players, especially South Americans because of their cultural links, so the Premiership needs to gain the upper hand through other methods.

A decade ago the Spaniards started from scratch, emphasising youth. Can England embrace the same patient approach?

The EPL has flourished with the introduction of foreign players and whilst I admit I’m not happy about seeing certain teams not featuring any English players, in some games, it’s for a reason.  The foreign talent is generally of a higher standard than we have here. I personally feel that the Homegrown rule is a poor attempt at trying to solve the underlying issue, which is that English players are not taught how to play football correctly, at a young age.

That is going to take maybe 6-8 years to turn around and the manufacturing of a squad’s make-up is not essential to the solution.  What is needed is a big rethink, new strategies and patience. If clubs, even those outside the top 10 of the Premiership, require loan players to fill their rosters, I believe it will lessen the stability of their squads, which, especially in the current economic climate, is something those teams strive to maintain week in, week out.

It now falls to the aptly named Roger Burden to revive the England's youth program

Tapesh: It’s true that English football needs a complete overhaul at the grassroots level but I also think that, although the homegrown rule may not be the be-all-and-end-all solution, it’s a good start; a signal that the FA is going in the right direction. As a temporary measure, it will give young English players, who otherwise would miss out,  the chance to make Premiership appearances.

The FA has done the right thing, following recent disappointments.  I don’t think any England fan would want the team to miss qualification for another major tournament!  We need our young players to develop.

Whilst it’s a shame that many Premiership clubs are now having to bring players in on loan, that’s a reflection of the economics of football nowadays.   The game has definitely gone top-heavy since the introduction of the Champions League.  The richer clubs have become richer, and the poor poorer.

..

Well, there you have it.  Steve and Tapesh have had their say, and having drained their glasses are each on their way home to explain their tardiness to the missus.  Who do you think was right?  Is the rule good for the Premiership, will it drag English football down into mediocrity or is the whole thing a tempest in a teapot?  You tell us, in our reader’s poll, below.

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