FA Chairman Greg Dyke's Non-EU Quotas Plan Is a Bold and Positive Move

The Football Association Chairman Greg Dyke’s plan to cut the amount of non-European Union players in English football by up to 50 percent should not be feared, but rather embraced as a bold and positive move for the game.

This would not affect the ability of Premier League clubs to sign the leading South American and non-European Union players.

Under the new plans Angel Di Maria and Radamel Falcao would all still be Manchester United players, while Alexis Sanchez would also still be settling in to life at Arsenal. 

The FA has no interest in scaring off the elite players from these shores, but instead making it more difficult for the average journeyman players to find a home here at the expense of English players.

Since 2009, 122 non-European Union players have entered English football, and so far this season 90 non-EU players have appeared in the Premier League compared to 297 Europeans.

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To limit these non-EU players, the Football Association propose that clubs outside the Premier League will not be allowed to apply for work permits for them, and only players from the top-50 countries in the FIFA rankings, rather than the existing top 70 would automatically be granted a visa if they have played the required amount of internationals.

The FA are also proposing to tighten up the appeal process for granting these visas, which allows a lot more non-EU players into the English game.

The FA, however, are also sensibly reducing the amount of international games you will have had to play for your country to obtain a visa from 75 percent in the last 2 years to just 30 percent, recognising the squad rotation used by many nations, and also visas would be given to elite non-EU players who had cost their clubs above a fixed fee likely to be £10 million.

The biggest impact to Premier League clubs under these new plans is they would no longer be able to loan out a non-EU player.

This seems eminently sensible and would force clubs to properly decide whether they really wanted the player if they knew he had to remain with their squad.

Squads would no longer be bloated with players if clubs had no intention of using them. 

As Dyke told Sky Sports: "We don't mind players being loaned out. What we're saying is if you're going to bring this player in, then why do you then want to loan him out if he's an elite player, which is what the law says?" 

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“We want managers to think before they sign this player, they've got to be pretty sure they'll want him in the squad and they will want to play him.”

For instance , at the moment Liverpool have Uruguayan Sebastian Coates at Sunderland and Moroccan Oussama Assaidi at Stoke, and Chelsea have the Brazilians Lucas Piazon and Wallace out on loan at Eintracht Frankfurt and Vitesse Arnhem respectively.

This trend is repeated at a host of other clubs in the Premier League, and obviously blocks the progress and development of English players. 

This won’t turn England in to World Cup winners overnight, but it will begin to give their young talents more opportunities. 

The message from the FA to Premier League clubs is a progressive and fair one; you can have non-EU players, but they have to be very good, and kept in your squad.