FA aiming to curb Premier League’s foreign influx, promote English talent with rules proposals

Football Association chairman Greg Dyke is introducing rules changes that, broadly, are out to limit imports and improve the chances for home-grown talent.

Football Association chairman Greg Dyke has proposed changes to the home grown player rule in English football to help more “top quality” English players break through.

Dyke wants a reduction in the maximum number of non-home grown players permitted in a club’s first team squad of 25 to be reduced from 17 to 13, phased over four years from 2016.

“In 2014, just 23 English players were playing Champions League football. That compares with 78 Spanish players, 55 from Germany and even 51 from Brazil – and the numbers will only get worse. If we want to maintain a national side capable of competing against the world’s best, we need change,” Dyke said in an FA statement.

One area confirmed for change, following discussions with the Home Office, concerns existing work permit regulations “to ensure only the most talented non-EU players meet new criteria”.

Dyke set up the England Commission in 2013 to look at ways of improving the chances of young English talent succeeding at the highest levels of the game.

The Commission identified a lack of quality coaching and a lack of opportunities for home grown players to play competitive first team football between the ages of 18 and 21.

“As the body responsible for all of English football, it’s The FA’s duty to create as many opportunities as possible for young home grown talent to compete at the highest level,” Dyke said.

"The Premier League clubs, who invest millions of pounds through their academies and the Elite Player Performance Programme (EPPP), are doing a fantastic job at developing young talent. But many of the home grown players being developed at these academies are not breaking through to play regular first team football.

“The Premier League has already recognised the problem and introduced home grown player quotas. But since those rules were introduced in 2010, the average number of home grown players in a Premier League squad has stayed largely the same and has actually decreased significantly at the 12 clubs who have been ever present in the League during that period.”

The FA will now embark on a period of consultation with all stakeholders in English football with the stated aim of introducing these changes over a phased four-season period so they are fully in force by the start of the 2019/2020 season.

Here, Press Association Sport explains what the changes will entail:

1 Players currently must have played at least 75 per cent of their country’s senior competitive international matches over the past two years. That will change so the required number of caps is staggered according to the country’s status. Players will have to have played at least 30 per cent of matches in the last two years if their country is in the top 10, at least 45 per cent if it is ranked between 11th and 20th, at least 60 per cent if between 21st and 30th and at least 75 per cent if between 31st and 50th.

2 Players currently must have played for a country ranked in Fifa’s top 70 when rankings are averaged over the two years prior to the date of application. That bar will be lowered to the top 50 countries under the new regulations.

3 All players are currently measured over the last two years. The new regulations will allow leeway for players aged 21 or under, who are assumed to be less established and therefore only need fulfil the criteria for the previous 12 months.

4 Under the current system, the appeals process is subjective and dictated by supporting evidence such as scout reports, videos and managers’ references. The panel decides if the player is of the “highest calibre” and invariably it approves, with 79 per cent of applications successful. The new appeals process will be less lenient and based on “predominantly objective measures”, such as agreed transfer value and wage, domestic club experience, European competition experience and international record.

5 The FA estimates that 33 per cent of the players who gained entry under the old system would not have been granted a work visa under the new rules. That means that over the last five years there would have been 42 fewer non-European players playing in the Premier and Football Leagues.

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