Premier League News: An insight into the Football Association rule on home-grown players
The Football Association of England has officially announced its decision that from the coming season, all Premier League clubs will have to name a 25 man squad, with eight of them required to be home-grown players. This is the law, and all Premier League clubs are to abide by it. This rule, however, is restricted to only the Premier League, and is not applicable in the FA Cup or the Carling Cup.
It is easy to define a home-grown player. It is a player who has been registered with any club which is affiliated with the Football Association or the Welsh Football Association for three seasons before the player’s 21st birthday. The player is deemed to be a home-grown one irrespective of his nationality or age.
Only for the function of this rule, a season is considered to begin from the day the summer transfer window ends, until the final match of the season. According to UEFA guidelines, an U-21 player is the one who is below the age of 21 on the 1st of January in which the season begins. For the 2009-10 season, for example, a player, to be deemed as an Under-21 player, needs to be born on or after January 1, 1990.
The complete list of the 25-man squad has to be submitted to the Premier League office by 5 pm the day after the transfer window closes. In other words, all the 20 Premier League clubs are required to submit the 25 man squad list on September 1, 2010, before 5 pm. This is because the transfer window ends on 6 pm on the 31st of August. Before this deadline, the clubs are free to play any team from its registered players. When the transfer window is open, the clubs are free to do anything with their squads, and can make, in theory, an unlimited amount of changes in their current squad. However, once the deadline has passed, the squad may only be changed owing to some exceptional circumstances, and the list of changes needs to be submitted and approved by the Premier League board.
One exceptional circumstance is when a club is without its 3 goalkeepers, who may be out due to injury or any other reason; the club is then permitted to bring in a replacement keeper. They would, however, have to follow the specific guidelines. Players who have been named in the 25-man squad and go out on loan, cannot be replaced, but can come back and reclaim their place. If a club, however, doesn’t have a 25-player squad, there is no obligation. They can sign free agents beyond the transfer window. However, if they do have eligible contracted players, the clubs are required to name them.
As there are eight spots reserved for home-grown players, any club who doesn’t have that many players will have to manage with a reduced squad. This is a watertight procedure, whereby clubs have to register online. They will have to submit the names of the 8 home-grown players, and failure to do so can be easily detected by the software. This makes it easy for the officials as all the data has already been entered in the database, and whenever a club will submit the names of the players, the software would know which player is a home-grown player.
The Home-grown players’ rule is set up because many teams are just exploiting the riches of their owners and employ whosoever they want. This causes unrest among younger players, who wait in line to get an opportunity to play for their side. All of the home-grown players join the club at a very young age and therefore look to perhaps one day play in the club they grew up with. However, recently it has been noticed that owing to the sheer amount of signings clubs make, the home-grown players are unable to get the opportunities they deserve.
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