I have heard that there is now a 'home grown rule' ie teams must field a certain number of British?/English? Players. Is this correct? If so can someone explain the details?
My undestanding is that you must have 6 'home grown' players in a matchday squad, and no more than 17 'foreign-grown' players in the whole squad A player qualifies as being 'Home Grown' if they have been domestically registered for a minimum of three seasons while under the age of 21 So for example, in 3 years, the young guy we got in from America will be classed as 'home-grown'. Ikpeazu should be classed as home-grown also, even though he wasn;t brought through our Academy.
Thanks Salisbury. So that means that Anya is home grown but Almunia isn't ( though he can play foe England)? Also 5 could be on the bench? Is there an under 21 exemption as in the EPL squad list and if so how does that work? I am asking so that I have a greater understanding of match day squads.
Here are the FL rules on it NZ. I hope you are the wiser having read it. 33.7 Home Grown Players. Each Club shall, with effect from the commencement of Season 2011/2012 be required to nominate a minimum of six Home Grown Players on their Team Sheet of Players for all League Competition Matches (including Play Off Matches). 33.8 'Home Grown Player' shall mean a Player who irrespective of his nationality or age, has been registered with:- 33.8.1 his current Club; and/or 33.8.2 a Club and/or any other football club affiliated to the Football Association or the Football Association of Wales, for a period, continuous or not of three Seasons or 36 months prior to his 21st birthday (or the end of the Season during which he turns 21). For the purposes of this definition of Home Grown Player only, a Season will be deemed to commence on the date on which the first Transfer Window in that Season closes and expire on the date of the final League Match of the Season. 33.9 For the purposes of Regulation 33.8.2, but not otherwise, a Player who was at all times registered with a Club (or club) affiliated to the Football Association of Wales shall be treated as having been registered with a Club (or club) affiliated to The Football Association, and vice versa.
Almunia has dual nationality and is therefore legally fully British when in Britain and Spanish when in Spain, so it would be difficult to see any problems in that case - anything else would be discriminatory.
Not according to the regulations Frenchie posted. They also mean that a boy born in England but moves to Scotland, say, before he signs up with an FA affiliated club is not home grown. The regs also mean that someone who has never been out do England bur switches from rugby to football when they are 19 are not home grown. I would also be interested to see an analysis of the economics of this. If it is true that foreign players are better than English ones, forcing clubs to have English players will inflate the price of them compared to non-English players. It will also reduce the competitiveness of English clubs in European competitions.
I would expect that in the "match day squad" we would pretty much always have Almunia, Bond, Doyley, Deeney and Hogg plus one or two of McGuigan . Murray and (when they return) Nosworthy and/or Hoban, so we can satisfy this rule without compromising the competitiveness of the squad. Remember that when we started last season for the first few games the squad included Yeates, Garner, Iwelumo and Taylor. We have moved an awfully long way since then. But it may take Zola a while to find his "best" formation and team (is there one?). It would be naive to expect a "flying start", even from this enhanced squad.
I would love to know what the situation with those from Jersey is. Where WFC are affiliated with the FA and the Herts FA, Jersey clubs are affiliated to the JFA in order to play in it's competitions and the JFA are a county within the FA, so are eligible to take part in the FA County Cup, but the clubs are not affiliated directly to the FA which is why there are no Jersey clubs in the pyramid system or any FA competitions. It would make it a lot clearer if UEFA accepted Jersey as a full member. They were reluctant to admit dependencies, so we've been refused admission at least once but the feeling here is that our case has been strengthened by them accepting Gibraltar as a member.
Anya will be classed as home grown as he came through the Oxford and Wycombe youth, so was 'grown' in this country. Almunia won't be as although he may have dual nationality, he came through Spanish academies. As long as they spend 3 years in an English academy, they count as home grown I think out of our squad, we would have: Bond Brown Doyley Hogg Deeney McGugan Smith Murray Anya Assombalonga Hoban Nosworthy Ikpeazu Then also O'Nien and Mensah who may go on loan. Assuming Thompson and Jenkins go....
So where would that leave players like Andy Hessentaler, Kevin Phillips etc - English born but came into the game late having never gone through an academy?
According to the BEEB - To qualify as home grown, a player will have had to be registered for at least three seasons at an English or Welsh club between the ages of 16 and 21. Getting ready for Scottish independence then - as well as that of Northern Ireland it would seem....
I think its a case of overseas players being of better value than many British players...for clubs looking to make short term transfers who need to be instant success stories rather than take a risk in spending big money on an unproven British youngster.. I notice we have been getting stick for brining these Udinese guys in but no-one seems to mind Man City buying 4 players from abroad etc... Guess in the eyes of the press it adds to the product of the "greatest league in the world"
"Bond Brown Doyley Hogg Deeney McGugan Smith Murray Anya Assombalonga Hoban Nosworthy Ikpeazu Then also O'Nien and Mensah who may go on loan. Assuming Thompson and Jenkins go...." So that's 15 "Home Grown" players, 8 of which came through our academy! A little fact that our friends at the Mail, LCFC boards etc. failed to acknowledge. But what's new.
But surely it means no change for us then if the ruling was established at the beginning of the 2011-2012 season - or has it been changed further since then ?
I don't think there is an 'English only' rule for them to forbid. There is simply a rule specifying a required number of home grown players in a squad - which I would argue is an eminently sensible rule to have (even if the EU are not noted for being sensible). And anyway, the way it is worded allows for those home grown players to be non-English.
