• 'Significant majority' of league's 20 clubs agree to rule
• System may have financial incentives as encouragement
David Conn, The Guardian, Wednesday 13 May 2009
Premier League clubs will be required to include a specified number of "home-grown" players in their squads or first teams from the 2010-11 season, in a major reverse of the league's long-standing opposition to any such quota system.
Richard Scudamore, the Premier League chief executive, announced yesterday that a "significant majority" of the league's 20 clubs have agreed to introduce a rule similar to Uefa's requirement for European competitions, that clubs must have eight "homegrown" players in their squads of 25. The league will decide at its annual summer meeting whether to adopt that system, the Football League's, which requires four "homegrown" players in a squad of 16, or to devise its own. The system may include financial incentives to encourage clubs to comply.
The Premier League was bitterly opposed to "quotas" when Uefa first introduced its rule for the 2005-06 season, but criticism of the English league's fielding of overseas players has grown from Uefa president, Michel Platini, and Sepp Blatter, president of Fifa. Blatter is still pushing for club teams to have a "6+5" complement of domestic to international players. In *October the culture secretary, Andy Burnham, asked as one of seven challenges whether the national side could be "bolstered" and "a specified number of homegrown players" could be introduced into clubs' sides.
Yesterday's move was a response to that question. Scudamore rejected Blatter's "6+5" rule, saying it would breach European laws, and argued the problem is not as severe as often presented. The England team has performed well overall since the Premier League was formed in 1992, he said, and this season, of 531 players who have played in Premier League matches, 203 – or 38% – are English.
However, he accepted for the first time that young English players do have difficulty breaking into senior teams. "There is a leap at 18, when clubs decide if it is worth retaining a player or to buy one ready-made. Clubs see scope for doing something to ensure we are bringing homegrown talent through."
European law, he explained, prevents clubs selecting players on the basis of nationality, so Uefa's definition of "homegrown" means players who have trained at a club for three years between 16 and 21. Critics – including the Premier League over the years – have pointed out that such young players are not necessarily English; Cesc Fábregas, for example, qualifies as homegrown at Arsenal.
The clubs, Scudamore said, have a mix of motives. "Some say this is a way of making their investment in academies sweat a bit more; some that it will help the England team. Others see the politics, and say: if it gives us an easier ride, and if it helps, let's do it."
On the most controversial of Burnham's questions, how to promote "competitive balance" and prevent the same clubs dominating every year, Scudamore offered no proposals. Burnham has long believed that earnings from Champions League participation cements the dominance of the big four clubs, and, here, that money should be shared more equally between the Premier and Football Leagues, but he has said the government will not intervene.
He will feel the "homegrown" players move may have some levelling effect, and discussions are thought to be continuing about clubs reducing the size of their squads. It will, though, be up to the Football League and FA, in their responses, to call for a more even share of the game's riches. "Any redistribution of money is a matter for football," a government spokesman said. "But we will maintain discussions on these issues."
• System may have financial incentives as encouragement
David Conn, The Guardian, Wednesday 13 May 2009
Premier League clubs will be required to include a specified number of "home-grown" players in their squads or first teams from the 2010-11 season, in a major reverse of the league's long-standing opposition to any such quota system.
Richard Scudamore, the Premier League chief executive, announced yesterday that a "significant majority" of the league's 20 clubs have agreed to introduce a rule similar to Uefa's requirement for European competitions, that clubs must have eight "homegrown" players in their squads of 25. The league will decide at its annual summer meeting whether to adopt that system, the Football League's, which requires four "homegrown" players in a squad of 16, or to devise its own. The system may include financial incentives to encourage clubs to comply.
The Premier League was bitterly opposed to "quotas" when Uefa first introduced its rule for the 2005-06 season, but criticism of the English league's fielding of overseas players has grown from Uefa president, Michel Platini, and Sepp Blatter, president of Fifa. Blatter is still pushing for club teams to have a "6+5" complement of domestic to international players. In *October the culture secretary, Andy Burnham, asked as one of seven challenges whether the national side could be "bolstered" and "a specified number of homegrown players" could be introduced into clubs' sides.
Yesterday's move was a response to that question. Scudamore rejected Blatter's "6+5" rule, saying it would breach European laws, and argued the problem is not as severe as often presented. The England team has performed well overall since the Premier League was formed in 1992, he said, and this season, of 531 players who have played in Premier League matches, 203 – or 38% – are English.
However, he accepted for the first time that young English players do have difficulty breaking into senior teams. "There is a leap at 18, when clubs decide if it is worth retaining a player or to buy one ready-made. Clubs see scope for doing something to ensure we are bringing homegrown talent through."
European law, he explained, prevents clubs selecting players on the basis of nationality, so Uefa's definition of "homegrown" means players who have trained at a club for three years between 16 and 21. Critics – including the Premier League over the years – have pointed out that such young players are not necessarily English; Cesc Fábregas, for example, qualifies as homegrown at Arsenal.
The clubs, Scudamore said, have a mix of motives. "Some say this is a way of making their investment in academies sweat a bit more; some that it will help the England team. Others see the politics, and say: if it gives us an easier ride, and if it helps, let's do it."
On the most controversial of Burnham's questions, how to promote "competitive balance" and prevent the same clubs dominating every year, Scudamore offered no proposals. Burnham has long believed that earnings from Champions League participation cements the dominance of the big four clubs, and, here, that money should be shared more equally between the Premier and Football Leagues, but he has said the government will not intervene.
He will feel the "homegrown" players move may have some levelling effect, and discussions are thought to be continuing about clubs reducing the size of their squads. It will, though, be up to the Football League and FA, in their responses, to call for a more even share of the game's riches. "Any redistribution of money is a matter for football," a government spokesman said. "But we will maintain discussions on these issues."
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