The Football League has just voted yes on the 'homegrown players' rule, to be implemented from the beginning of the 09/10 season. The rule determines that at least 4 players in each 16-man matchday squad must have been registered domestically for a minimum of three years before their 21st birthday.
So much for the impending arrival of hundreds of second-rate Scandinavian footballers.
What do you lot think? Could you ever imagine the EPL following suit?
[BBC Sport]
Thursday, December 18, 2008
UF Quick Throw: The Football League votes
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
9 comments:
How is the homegrown player initiative even an issue? A glance over 5 squads in the Colaship reveals that more than half those teams' rosters are "British." (I'm using Georger's version of British for the sake of argument.) The initiative has been implemented de facto either through academies, the limited budgets of lower-tier clubs, or the desire to raise gate revenue by featuring local players. Developing young talent is necessary and benefits the FA in numerous ways, indeed, but the measure seems toothless. Simply having it on the books so they can point to UEFA and say, "Hey, look what we did!" and cup Platini's nuts is no reason to make the rule de jure. It's analogous to having a federally mandated national language; the vast majority already speak English, so why try to put more laws on the books?
Here's my take (I was going to put this in an update to the post but can't be bollocked at the moment).... You're right, this rule will have no practical impact on the football leagues, but it will make for a test case of the EU free movement laws. Essentially, the EU prevents member countries from creating laws that discriminate against hiring foreigners. As the EU laws are currently written, this includes football to which Platini has been lobbying the EU to carve out an exception, but so far to now avail. So, this new homegrown rule could lead to a test case before the EU courts, which could take years before it is resolved, but at least gets the ball rolling.
Either that or the football leagues are xenophobes.
The funny thing is, everything I've read says that if a homegrown plan is adopted in England, than the lower leagues will really suffer. You'll have EPL clubs fighting over the few above-mediocre English players that will lead to a depletion of talent down the leagues.
I'm not in favor of an absolute free market in anything, but this is an example of the downside to silly European socialist thinking. A Europe-wide homegrown rule would set football back decades if implemented.
And even in the EPL, the only team that couldn't meet that rule right now in the Big 5 is Fifthsenal.
Pool's got Carra, Gerrard, Darby, and Pennant
Chelski have Bridge, Cashley, JoeCole, Fat Francesco and he who shall not be named.
United have The Canadian Traitor, Foster, Brown, Fletcher, Carrick, Shrek, ScoresGoals and Rio
Martin O'Neill could field a British XI if he wanted
Arsene has Theo, Hoyte, Ramsay, and that's about it
Platini thinks that Fifthsenal is destroying football and must be legislated out of existence.
But the passing is just so beautiful right before Bendtner whacks it into Row Q and van Porcelain crumples to the turf. How could Platini hate that?
@ Spec: I'm with you on the test case, and I think that's a shrewd move if it were in fact the rationale behind the decision. Also agree with non-absolute free market, but there comes a time when the free market requires some coddling. If there were a dearth of talented English players in the football market and the whole training system needed to be revamped, then sure, allow for the rule; there's logic in that reasoning. But if the argument is that the EPL, Colaship, etc aren't "English" enough then that borders on both xenophobia and some weird soccer-eugenics.
One more thing: why only 4 homegrown players? That makes little impact on teams stacked with foreigners (although there aren't any in Colaship et al.). What if the player were to come from a the Commonwealth?
I'm guessing they went with 4 because it was one less than the Platini 5+4 plan. That way they look more reasonable and willing to compromise.
Keith, you forgot:
Jack Wilshire, Kieran Gibbs, Jay Simpson, Henri Landsbury, and Mark Randall. There's also James Dunn and Abu Ogogo out on loan.
Not sure how many of them make the 3 years before their 21st birthday as half of them are 12, but Arsenal has plenty of English kiddies on the payroll.
Speccy-
I'm pretty sure you mean 6+5. Unless the English game is trying out a new look.
Post a Comment