English Football League Votes for “Homegrown Players” Quota

By: Daryl | December 18th, 2008

And by English Football League, we don’t mean English Premier League. It’s the Championship, League One and League Two. What they’ve voted for is a new rule whereby every team’s 16 man matchday squad must contain at least four “homegrown players” from next season onwards.

That doesn’t mean they had to grow up within a stones throw of the stadium (because then you’d just get clubs training kids to throw stones really really far) and it doesn’t even mean they have to be English. What it does mean is that the four “homegrown” players must have trained at the club for at least three years before the age of 21.

So it’s not necessarily an English player quota, mostly because that would make several European Union lawyers very very angry. But since clubs in the lower divisions don’t have Arsenal’s scouting network or pull (can you imagine a teenage Cesc Fabregas signing for Burnley?) the net effect will be more English players in matchday squads.

Eagle eyed readers will notice this is very much in line with UEFA’s proposed alternative to Blatter’s beloved 6+5 suggestion. Like the UEFA proposal, it doesn’t break EU law, doesn’t restrict opportunities for players from poorer countries (or at least it restricts it a lot less than 6+5 would) and at the very least will ensure that lower league clubs are forced to have a vested interest in a quality youth system.

Sure there are downsides. I can see problems where players who join a new team at 19 would be ineligible as homegrown players and so might have their chances restricted. And it might also cause severe headaches for clubs moving between the Championship and the Premier League, where the rules either suddenly will or suddenly won’t apply (depending on whether you’ve just been relegated or promoted).

But overall I have a good feeling about this, as it might be a sensible measure (unlike 6+5) to re-enforce the notion of training good youngsters and thinking long term.

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Utku

turkey has a similar rule for the entire federation where a team can not play more 6 foreign players and most teams only have id say max 5-8 foreign players(except for fener)and the rest are turkish players. we saw a huge improvement of the national team after the implentation of this rule so you guys should be looking forward to this. and the reason i said except for fener is because 9 of their players are born in foreign countries. and they usually play 6 foreigners every match
Rob

I don't think it'll matter too much to the football league - maybe it'll only really affect relegated sides from the Prem. My team, Bristol Rovers, are pretty much all English.