burnee54
East Upper Hermit
- What are your thoughts guys?
- Is this the way to nurture home grown talent?
- Will the required 51% of clubs agree to be governed by these rules?
"The Football League is considering introducing radical home-grown player quotas and overhauling the loan system in an attempt to improve the development of English players.
All 72 clubs have been consulted over a range of proposals, including a ban on taking foreign players on loan, a significant increase in the number of home-grown players that must be named in each match-day squad and stipulating that two of the seven substitutes must be aged under 21. The Football League is due to begin collating their responses this week.
The League’s consultation is a response to Greg Dyke’s FA Commission, which the FA chairman set up last year in an attempt to address the significant decline in the number of English players competing at the top level, but will now not report until the summer because of concerns that its findings could undermine England’s World Cup campaign.
The Premier League and the FA have been informed of the League’s proposals, which could be introduced as soon as next season if they receive the backing of 51 per cent of the clubs.
In The Times’ special report this week, For the Good of the Game, many stakeholders in the sport have identified a blockage that prevents many promising players aged 18 to 21 gaining much playing time, and the League is seeking to address this shortcoming.
The most radical solution is the proposed change to the loan system, which would prevent League clubs taking on loan foreign players who have not been developed in England. Loan signings would be restricted to so-called home-grown players, who in accordance with European Union Law must have spent three years at an FA-affiliated club while under the age of 21.
There is no block on foreign loan signings at present, although League clubs are permitted to sign only eight players on loan from overseas clubs over the course of a season, while only five loan players of any origin can be named in a match-day squad. Also, only five players can be signed on loan from the same Premier League club in one season. The Football League introduced home-grown quotas at the start of the 2011-12 season, with a minimum of six to be named in each club’s 18-strong match-day squad, and they could be increased significantly if a majority of clubs give their backing.
The initial proposal is for a minimum of nine home-grown players to be included on each team-sheet next season, a figure that could rise to 11 in subsequent years.
League executives are believed to be open-minded about increasing the quotas, but are confident that all their clubs could comply if they were introduced. Some Championship clubs who have become reliant on the overseas loan market would have to alter their approach, however, particularly Watford, who brought in 14 players on loan last season before the regulations were tightened up last summer.
There is a proposal to lobby the FA and the Premier League to establish a centralised fund to make payments to clubs who produce England players as a reward to incentivise them to develop their own players — similar to that operated in cricket by the ECB — while there is also a desire to put co-ordinated pressure on Uefa to tighten up the home-grown regulations so that they pertain just to domestic players, or increase the residential qualification period from three to five years.
Other proposals include making it mandatory to have two players aged under 21 on each substitutes’ bench, and the establishment of a Football League under-21 team to play regular matches against other second-tier leagues in Europe to broaden young players’ international experience. "
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/sport/football/article4022186.ece
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