English Premier League: 'Home-Grown' Rule Will Change Nothing

And then there were 25! After a hectic close to the summer transfer window each of the 20 English Premier League teams had to register their 25-man squads for the season.

Under new Premier League rules each team must register a squad of 25 players, eight of which must be “home-grown” players. Any player who is turns 21 after the 1^st of January during the season in question is free to be including in the squad without being one of the registered 25.

A “home-grown” player is a player who has trained with an English or Welsh team for three years or more while between the ages of 16 to 21.

The powers that be thought that it would be of great benefit to the Premier League and to the future of English football, both domestically and internationally, to enforce this new ruling.

However that is not the case. The new rules will lower the quality of the Premier League and hinder the progress of young English talent!

If you look at the transfers, no team had to run out and sign a massive amount of English players, in fact Chelsea allowed Joe Cole to leave for free and replaced him with Israeli international Jossi Benayoun.

Also, despite each club been obliged to included a minimum of eight “home-grown” players in the squad of 25, none of the teams are obliged to actually play any of their “home-grown” players.

The teams for the most part will remain unchanged, and the for the most part the usual suspects will line out for the team - with the exception of Man City who attempted to by a whole new team this summer.

The only thing that the rule has actually accomplished is it has forced teams with large squads of quality players to send some players on loan or in some cases on permanent deals.

Manchester United were forced to send Tom Cleverley on loan to Wigan for the season because Alex Ferguson could not fit him into the 25-man squad.

Cleverley is considered a valuable prospect at Old Trafford but he has become redundant for United due to the new rules. Cleverley turned 21 in August so he would not be able to get into the United squad unless he was one of the registered 25.

Tottenham were another team who were hit hard by the new rule. Harry Redknapp had to leave Jonathan Woodgate out of the 25-man squad due to the fact that his injury will keep him out for a prolonged part of the season.

That is just two examples of two English players on different ends of the spectrum that have felt the blunt of the new 25-man squad rule.

The Premier League and English Football Association are convinced that the number of foreign players is to blame for the national sides lack of success.

That is not the case!

In 1992 the Premier League was home to only 11 foreign players. Despite the league consisting on mainly English players the national side failed to progress from the Group Stages in Euro ’92 in Sweden, and the team failed to even quality for the ’94 World Cup in the United States.

The rule prevents the top sides in the league from being able to utilize all the players that they have at their disposal, but it in now manner will help increase the quality on the pitch, nor the quality of the English side.