Uefa gets it spot on with homegrown quotas
Football supporters, and I am no exception, are quick to give the sport´s governing bodies a difficult time when they mess things up with their own unique brand of farce and bureaucracy. So for once I will put my neck on the line and say ´Well done, Uefa!´, because their new regulations on homegrown players in European football already seem to be having a significant impact.
The new scheme´s first big-name fall guy is Liverpool defender Sami Hyypia. The Finnish international´s Champions League career seems to be, well, finished after he was omitted from the Reds´ 25-man squad for the competition. The news rules stipulate that each squad must contain at least four players developed by the club´s own academy, and a further four players who have been produced by any other academy in the same country.
While Sepp Blatter´s ’6+5′ rule was never going to get off the ground, this solution seems to offer a happy medium for all parties. Champions League managers have still got 17 positions in their squad to offer to their latest foreign import and can still field a team of eleven players from abroad should they wish. But instead of 34-year-old Finns fighting for a place on the bench, there will be a contingent of young British players instead.
Taking Liverpool as the example, it is doubtful whether defenders Steve Irwin (we thought he had met his demise while swimming with stingrays) and Martin Kelly would have had a sniff of Champions League football this season without the new regulations, but they have made the squad at Hyypia´s expense. And although the rules are limited to European football, they are bound to have a knock-on effect for domestic football. Managers will be building their squads with the homegrown player quotas in mind, and are more likely to blood their youngsters in the Premier League than risk handing them their first-team debut in a tough away Champions League tie.
The plans were first announced in 2005 by Lennart Johansson, so Michel Platini cannot take the credit for this one. They have been phased in since then, but with the quota now up to eight homegrown players it is now likely to start having a tangible impact on clubs and their young players. Time to start hyping up our generation of teenage Champions League players….
Topics: Liverpool, UEFA Champions League
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this decision is spot on. there are two reasons everyone loves champions league football: 1) top notch play with big money and prestige attached 2) a mix of club/international competition. the international aspect of the champions league is what makes it truly great, and is just as important in a country’s bragging rights to good football as, say, the euro cup. even if this facet is more percieved by the fans that actually relevant to the quality of a country’s football, this is a great step by uefa to preserve that aspect of the competition.
September 10th, 2008 @ 12:04If you look at the last few seasons, there are at least a dozen, maybe a score of young players at top clubs who made their debuts in a CL group game – the fifth, or the sixth round – so, I think it is not a must to have some home league games under your belt before you get into the first teame in Europe.
September 10th, 2008 @ 16:44There are always loopholes to every rule. This just means that teams will begin recruiting foreign players from age 17 so they can have the required 3-years in a local academy. Just like we have a growing number of nationalised brazilians on euro teams like spain, turkey, and croatia, we will have a growing number of foreign players swelling the upper-level ranks of british team academies. While this will assure a high-level at the very top, it will do nothing to preserve the levels at the bottom ages 3+, which is what really is needed. The more you try to make strange laws like this, is the more you end up creating strange situations. It’s either all or nothing, but not a mixture. What’s really happening is a fight against globalisation.
September 10th, 2008 @ 16:50make a club from nation A have AT LEAST 7 players from nation A (citizens) in their CL squad… now that is a better compromise
September 10th, 2008 @ 17:45@Mads United USA
It’s hard to find 11 proper players for the English national team, how could top clubs find 7 each?:)
September 11th, 2008 @ 09:42