New FA chairman Dyke voices concerns over number of English youngsters in PL

[Arn]

New FA chairman Dyke voices concerns over number of English youngsters in Premier League

New FA chairman Greg Dyke says increasing the number of young English players turning out for the country's top sides is one of his biggest challenges.

David Bernstein leaves the governing body role this summer, and when Dyke takes over he plans to up the number of English youngsters in the Premier League.

Former Manchester United director Dyke believes young talent is being pushed out of first teams by foreign imports.

'A lot of coaches I talk to tell me there is a lot of talent out there, but they can't get through,' he said.

'That is going to be one of the big challenges. How do we get talented kids, properly coached, into the top level of English football?

'What I recognise is that we have a league system, particularly at Premier League level, where the insecurity of managers is such that: why take the chance on a kid where you can bring someone else in from Croatia, an experienced player who you know won't make the same mistakes that kids inevitably make?

The Premier League has the lowest percentage of domestic players out of Europe's major leagues, with English players making up just 36 per cent compared to 61 per cent in the Spanish La Liga, 60 per cent in France, 47 per cent in Germany and 46 per cent in the Italian Serie A.

'That seems to me a great challenge.'

Dyke also voiced concerns over the Premier League's impact on the England national team.

'I was around when the Premier League was set up [but] I'm not sure it was set up to improve the England team,' he added.

'It was set up to improve the finances of the top clubs, which in some ways it has done but the money goes straight through. It's become like the movie business where there is a lot of income but it all goes to the talent.

'There is nothing wrong with that except the process has distorted the situation, and now we have a situation where English football, by and large at the top level, is owned overseas, is managed by people from overseas and played by people from overseas.

'It's turned it into a brilliant league, but it does give a problem with the English team.'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/foo...challenge.html

[Chazza]

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The Football Association chairman, Greg Dyke, has vowed to push through tough rules governing the number of homegrown players in the top flight to encourage the development of more prospects such as Harry Kane.

But the proposals, designed to tackle a “grim picture” for young English players, are likely to put him on a collision course with top Premier League clubs who believe their investments in academy systems will bear fruit without the need for tougher quotas.

Dyke has proposed the minimum number of homegrown players in a top-flight 25-man first-team squad be increased from eight to 12. Under the plans, which require Premier League approval, the changes would be phased in over four years from 2016-17.

At the same time the FA chairman said the qualification rules should be changed so young players have to be on the books of an English club for three years before their 18th birthday to qualify as homegrown rather than before they reach 21, as is the case now.

Because young players are technically not allowed to sign for overseas clubs until they are 18, unless moving for family reasons, the hope is that it would ensure the vast majority of homegrown players are British and stop cases such as that of Cesc Fàbregas being classed as homegrown.

Dyke warned that if nothing is done the trickle of English talent at top Premier League clubs will dry up altogether and said the process would be exacerbated by the new £5.1bn domestic TV deal. “It’s working well as a league and it is a great league to watch,” he said. “But my fear for the future of English football is the Premier League ends up being owned by foreigners, managed by foreigners and played by foreigners. And, I think, certainly in terms of the playing, we can make a difference.”

Dyke also said new visa rules agreed last week with the Home Office will help. He claimed 42 non-EU players would have been prevented from getting work permits over the past five years.

Under stricter rules to be introduced from next season, non-EU signings such as Bryan Oviedo, Mame Biram Diouf, Ryo Miyaichi and Brek Shea would have been unlikely to meet the tougher criteria. Players costing less than around £10m must meet criteria designed to prove they are of genuine international quality.

Dyke argued it would help free up squad places for young talent while leaving clubs able to signgenuine top-class talent from around the world.

In a move partly designed to show his chairman’s commission process had not been a waste of time and money, Dyke underlined the urgent need to try to increase the flow of young players into first-team squads. He said there was a particular issue at the upper end of the Premier League, where only 22% of those who started matches for Chelsea, Manchester City, Arsenal and Manchester United this season were qualified to play for England. That compared with 28% last season. This season only 23 English players appeared in the Champions League group stage compared with 78 Spanish players, 55 Germans and 51 Brazilians.

On coming into the job in 2013, Dyke made the issue a priority, warning that England faced drifting into footballing obscurity if nothing were done. He simultaneously set a target of winning the 2022 World Cup.

He contends huge investment in the academy system through the Premier League’s Elite Player Performance Plan has improved the quality of young players but that the blockage between 18 and 21 means they are not gaining enough first-team experience.

Dyke said that in trying to sell the regulations to Premier League clubs, who will have to vote for them with a two-thirds majority, he would point to the example of Kane. The 21-year-old striker is likely to make his debut for England in Friday’s Euro 2016 home qualifier against Lithuania or the friendly in Italy four days later following a breakthrough season with Tottenham after loan spells at four clubs.

Dyke said: “Suddenly an English kid who was out on loan, who was touch-and-go to get a game in the first team, is suddenly the top scorer in English football. It’s great news. How many more Harry Kanes are there out there who just can’t get a game?”

Dyke conceded there was no point “trying to flog a dead horse” over the introduction of Premier League B-teams into the Football League, another of the proposals that emanated from his original commission report.

He is delighted the Football League is considering an alternative plan to allow top-flight B-teams to take part in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy, a proposal that has proved controversial with many lower-league fans.

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/mar/23/greg-dyke-fa-overseas-player-quotas?CMP=share_btn_tw

[dom9]

The Farage of football.

[ChesterDave]

It more convenient to blame foreigners in the PL for English players being not good enough that to acknowledge that young foreign players are better than their English/British counterparts at a comparable age.

Why you you play an average 18 year old English kid rather than a good 18 year old foreign kid. You wouldn't.

[McDermotX]

Sure any half-decent English young fella soon wants 150k a week or something completely off his rocker

[ChrisDR1968]

It more convenient to blame foreigners in the PL for English players being not good enough that to acknowledge that young foreign players are better than their English/British counterparts at a comparable age.

Why you you play an average 18 year old English kid rather than a good 18 year old foreign kid. You wouldn't.

Yes let's have 100% of players in the Premier League being foreign. Happy days

[ChesterDave]

Yes let's have 100% of players in the Premier League being foreign. Happy days

That's clearly not what I said

And if foreign teenagers/20 year olds are better than English teenagers/20 year olds the problem ain't in game time as an adult.

Clearly the developmental ages are the problem. But that would require money going from the FA to grassroots and shock horror listening to those dastardly foreigners about how to do something successfully. And we don't need to do we. We invented the game.

[Kenneth]

I must say, the current system of taking young kids from all over the world, good and average, and bringing them to a foreign country to spend their formative years on what is basically a footballer production conveyer belt where the vast majority are rejected, well it seems quite wrong to me. Letting them develop with their local clubs and then buying them as adults worked for decades but someone noticed a marginal balance sheet benefit of the 'children trafficking' model so it's become the norm.

[The_weatherman]

I must say, the current system of taking young kids from all over the world, good and average, and bringing them to a foreign country to spend their formative years on what is basically a footballer production conveyer belt where the vast majority are rejected, well it seems quite wrong to me. Letting them develop with their local clubs and then buying them as adults worked for decades but someone noticed a marginal balance sheet benefit of the 'children trafficking' model so it's become the norm.

Yeah, I agree. It could also damage their chances of a good career. It's not easy to move to another country and adapt when your are 16, some can and some don't. I wonder if players like FSP, Le Tallec, Pacheco and Bruna would maybe have carved out a better career for themselves if they had stayed longer at their respective clubs and leagues.

[Roboklopp]

Le Tallec was terminally turd whatever.

[vlahka]

I'm still suffering taunts from my UTD friends about the french gems. Happened the other day in fact.

[ChesterDave]

I'm still suffering taunts from my UTD friends about the french gems. Happened the other day in fact.

Remind them of Bebe.

[Saveloy]

Remind them of Bebe.

And King Eric.

(Djemba-Djemba)

[Paddy]

And King Eric.

(Djemba-Djemba)

Kleberson. Tosic. Forcao.