UEFA to change rules on homegrown players

[Mega Tsunami]

From here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/europe/4233353.stm

Uefa has announced clubs competing in the Champions League and Uefa Cup will have to include four homegrown players in their 25-man squad from 2006.
Europe's governing body also wants to implement the plan in domestic leagues but that will have to be agreed by each national association.
Uefa then wants six homegrown players by 2007 and eight in 2008.
Of the eight, at least four must be trained by the club's own academy and the rest in the home country.
Uefa defines a club-trained player as one who has been registered for a minimum of three seasons with the club between the age of 15 and 21.
Of the 32 sides in last season's Champions League, five clubs would have not had enough homegrown players.
They are: Arsenal, Chelsea, Celtic, Rangers and Ajax.
Uefa's 52 member associations will vote on whether the same rule should apply to domestic competitions at a Congress in Tallinn, Estonia in April.
There has already been strong opposition voiced by the Premier League and the Italian federation.
But Uefa chief executive Lars-Christer Olsson said: "We think this is a reasonable compromise based on all the consultations we have had.
"Although we have had negative responses from some leagues and some bigger clubs in those leagues, all the others involved have been very supportive of this idea.
"We also think the proposal is legal, because it is a sporting rule, not as a restriction, to develop and promote young players."
But a Premier League spokesman said: "Uefa clearly believes they have a robust-enough legal position to introduce the changes within their competitions.
"However, it is extremely unlikely that such a rule change will be introduced in our domestic competition."

In my opinion this doesn't go far enough. I would have 4 in the 11 on the pitch at any one time, rising to 5 or even 6 over time.

 

[Lambert Simnel]

Hmm. Seems against EU law to me (though I accept I'm no expert). Not as outrageously so as the old "no more than x foreigners" rule, but still is a potential restraint on individuals being able to work where they wish within the EU.

 

[MCdread]

What surprises me the most is to know that Ajax would not have been able to field enough homegrown players...
Lambert, I'm not an expert on it either, but it seems the crafters of this rule were fairly sure that this would not violate the EU laws, probably because the homegrown players can come from any country (hmm... however it says that 4 of them must have been homegrown in the country...).

 

[Alone]

I don't see how that would make any diference... (if they said 11 of 25 that would ment something... and this is from my point of view and I prefered good old times when all European clubs had most of the squad from native country... yes, I know, I know it's not possible to turn clock of the time back... it's just...me).

 

[Scuffer]

2006? That's not long. If the clubs don't have the right players at there clubs now, they are going to struggle to bring the youngster through in time. It's either going to have be play the reserves, or buy back former youth players.

 

[Lambert Simnel]

What surprises me the most is to know that Ajax would not have been able to field enough homegrown players...
Lambert, I'm not an expert on it either, but it seems the crafters of this rule were fairly sure that this would not violate the EU laws, probably because the homegrown players can come from any country (hmm... however it says that 4 of them must have been homegrown in the country...).

I would have thought the academy bit is defensible (though probably stupid - we'll end up with each team retaining 4 players in their squad simply to meet this rule, and not on their playing ability), but the home grown bit I think is very dubious.

 

[phoenix_night]

I don't like this kind of rule at all.

Why does it affect the major leagues? Spain, England etc. will always have enough players for competition regarding the national teams. The only impact I can see it having is reducing the quality of these leagues. It's an unnecessary restriction if you ask me.

My main concern regards less prominent leagues though. Restricting foreign players will certainly restrict the quality of these leagues, while simultaneously reducing the ability of players from lesser nations to compete in higher standard leagues. They'll be cut off. Not good for the leagues or the nations they represent, IMO.

 

[Suppersalmon]

oh great another UEFA intitave to improve the game the big clubs will be able to buy the players that will be eligble even if they are rubbish and just include them in the squad and not play them while other clubs such as Rangers and Celtic will find it hard to find the yong players and therefore suffer
well done UEFA another golden goal success on your hands

 

[Mega Tsunami]

I don't like this kind of rule at all.

Why does it affect the major leagues? Spain, England etc. will always have enough players for competition regarding the national teams. The only impact I can see it having is reducing the quality of these leagues. It's an unnecessary restriction if you ask me.

My main concern regards less prominent leagues though. Restricting foreign players will certainly restrict the quality of these leagues, while simultaneously reducing the ability of players from lesser nations to compete in higher standard leagues. They'll be cut off. Not good for the leagues or the nations they represent, IMO.

I suppose you would think that as you live in a country with a very poor home league where all of your national team players play in foreign leagues.
No one wants the good foreign players restricted but there are too many not-very-good foreigners playing in lower teams and leagues in England. They should somehow be restricted.

Just had a thought - Welsh players would be regarded as foreigners in England and so (assuming the restrictions filtered down to lower leagues) they would also be considered foreigners at Cardiff You would be forced to play a certain number of Englishmen

Of course Cardiff would probably be forced to leave the English league with at least one good thing – they get to play in the CL!

Yes, I can see why you don’t like this rule.

 

[Dell19]

oh great another UEFA intitave to improve the game the big clubs will be able to buy the players that will be eligble even if they are rubbish and just include them in the squad and not play them while other clubs such as Rangers and Celtic will find it hard to find the yong players and therefore suffer
well done UEFA another golden goal success on your hands

Any team would be able to buy rubbish players to fill up the slots. Effectively for some teams it would just reduce the number of players that they can choose from for each game.

 

[Shabbaman]

What surprises me the most is to know that Ajax would not have been able to field enough homegrown players...

What's your basis for that statement? If there's one club that could easily meet those criteria, it would be ajax. In their last competition match a total 6 players who'd meet the sternest criterium (3 years with the same club) played, with more players like that in their selection. The total of players in both categories is 12. AFAIK there's only one club who can not meet these criteria this season, and that's AC Milan: they have only 1 homegrown player (no idea who that'd be), though they have another 10 players educated in Italy.
All in all, another UEFA decision without serious consequense. So okay, from the 25 possible players, you need to dedicate at least two to "possible crap" from your own youth academy. But what club doesn't have some talent walking around? And what club doesn't have at least two players from their own country who play regularly?

Source, in dutch.

EDIT: I see, it's in that article. Well, so much for British journalistic integrity, I can name four from the back of my head: V.d. Vaart, Sneijder, Heitinga and Stekelenburg. Those have played CL matches. There were more though.
4 players in 06-07 and up to 8 in 08-09, half of which is "grown" at the club itself. The link I provided states that ajax has currently 10 players grown at the club in their selection of 31.

 

[Lambert Simnel]

My main concern regards less prominent leagues though. Restricting foreign players will certainly restrict the quality of these leagues, while simultaneously reducing the ability of players from lesser nations to compete in higher standard leagues.

Quite right. In Scotland at the moment, although the national team is diabolical, at least Celtic have offered the country some sort of involvement in the higher reaches of the UEFA Cup for the last couple of years. Celtic would probably be negatively impacted by the new rule. I'd suggest football in Scotland (and likewise in many smaller countries) would thus be the poorer for this legislation.

I'm not so sure it would materially work the other way, with a sudden rush of top European clubs selling off their high quality Scottish players because they're not the right nationality, thus denying the Quashies and Dickovs their opportunity to learn in the cauldron of the Champions League...

 

[phoenix_night]

I suppose you would think that as you live in a country with a very poor home league where all of your national team players play in foreign leagues.
No one wants the good foreign players restricted but there are too many not-very-good foreigners playing in lower teams and leagues in England. They should somehow be restricted.

Why are there too many?
How are they not good enough?

Just had a thought - Welsh players would be regarded as foreigners in England and so (assuming the restrictions filtered down to lower leagues) they would also be considered foreigners at Cardiff You would be forced to play a certain number of Englishmen

*sigh*
Do you pay any attention at all to reality? Cardiff players are registered with the Welsh FA not the English. This scenario of yours is again completely wide of the mark.

Of course Cardiff would probably be forced to leave the English league with at least one good thing – they get to play in the CL!

Why would they?

MT: Think. Before. You. Post.

 

[phoenix_night]

I'm not so sure it would materially work the other way, with a sudden rush of top European clubs selling off their high quality Scottish players because they're not the right nationality, thus denying the Quashies and Dickovs their opportunity to learn in the cauldron of the Champions League...

True, but if this rule were in force, would Quashie even be a Scotland player?

 

[Mega Tsunami]

@phoenix_night
I meant the fans would force Cardiff to leave (well the self respecting ones would). Would you be happy being, effectively, an English club, forced to play a number of English players where the Welsh players are considered foreign?

 

[Hitro]

I'm with Alone on this, I'd like the pre-Bosman rules back, that stupid ruling was the beginning of the end of football...

 

[phoenix_night]

@phoenix_night
I meant the fans would force Cardiff to leave (well the self respecting ones would). Would you be happy being, effectively, an English club, forced to play a number of English players where the Welsh players are considered foreign?

Did you completely miss this part of my last post?
"Do you pay any attention at all to reality? Cardiff players are registered with the Welsh FA not the English. This scenario of yours is again completely wide of the mark."
Why did you ignore it?

Besides, I can guarantee that none of the fans would want Cardiff to leave. Which apparently means we have no self respect...

 

[Dell19]

Thats odd how does that work with Cardiff being registered solely with the Welsh FA, wouldn't they need to be registered with both? Has anyone found out whether UEFA would actually classify a Welsh player in an English team as actually foreign? Either answer could cause some problems as if the answer was yes then certain teams could have odd problems.

 

[Shabbaman]

Well, it'd make sense if a, say, 21 y.o. player from Wales who has played for the youth of some welsh club for three years counts as a "Welsh grown player", and not an english one. This seems pretty clear.