Post by QPR Report on Sept 15, 2009 6:16:05 GMT
Guardian/Owen Gibson
Restrictions on squad sizes will force clubs to overhaul playing staff• Squads of 25 must include eight 'home-grown' players
• 'To make rather than buy is intent' says Scudamore
Liverpool and several other Premier League clubs will have to dramatically overhaul their playing staffs for next season, when new rules will be introduced forcing them to limit squad sizes and encourage the development of "home-grown" talent.
The league's chief executive, Richard Scudamore, revealed that the 20 top-flight clubs last week agreed to the new rules. They are broadly based on Uefa's regulations for clubs competing in the Champions League and the Europa League but applying them to the Premier League as well will force some to slim down their squads in the face of accusations they are "stockpiling" talent.
Under the rules, clubs will have to name a squad of 25 players over 21 before the season begins. Eight of those players must be "home-grown", in that they must have been developed for at least three years by an English or Welsh club before their 21st birthday. They can name a second, limitless list of players under 21 and both lists can be resubmitted at the end of the January transfer window.
Liverpool will be among the worst-hit clubs. According to their website, they have 56 registered professionals with 23 battling for 17 spots for non-home-grown players within the squad under the new rules.
"It clearly encourages youth development and the promotion of young players, but, and we don't apologise for it, it goes nowhere near a nationality test because we don't believe that's right," said Scudamore. However, naturally, it is encouragement to those who are developed locally – from within your association – and that will encourage players who are qualified to play for the home country."
The Premier League, which signalled a U-turn earlier this year from its historic opposition to rules placing limits on squad sizes or introducing quotas, is likely to face criticism from some who feel the rules do not go far enough.
But Scudamore insisted the new rules would have a meaningful impact. "For players and agents, it will have an effect. It will reduce squad sizes, it will stop the warehousing of players. It will have an impact. If you're not in that 17, you're not playing. This is going to alter some dynamics," he said.
"Nothing is going to stop a club buying a 25-year-old from abroad. But they will have to get rid of someone else [to do so]. There will be some interesting discussions with those who are surplus to requirements and won't make the 17."
He refused to comment directly on the allegations about Premier League clubs scouring Europe for the best young talent in the wake of Fifa banning Chelsea from signing any new players until 2011 over the Gaël Kakuta affair.
"There aren't thousands of young people being shipped over here and brought into our academies," he said. "There are some, but the rhetoric of the last three weeks would have you believe there are boat loads coming in all the time. There are ones and twos."
The Premier League points to figures showing that 85% of the 320 academy scholars at its clubs are British, a figure that rises to 95% for the 2,486 students under the age of 16.
However, there is an acceptance that there is an issue around "transitioning" players aged between 18 and 21 to the first team. Scudamore said the new rules would help and promised it would be an area of focus for the league's new director of youth, Ged Roddy.
"It is a rule we think will give extra incentive for clubs to invest in youth development. The intention is to make a better return from investment in youth, to transition more players from the youth team to the first team. To make rather than buy is the intention," he said.
Even if it merely encouraged clubs to buy younger players he said the effect would be a positive one, using a culinary analogy to liken them to "that doughy stuff you buy half-made".
"You can buy semi-cooked stuff at 18, 19, 20 and that is better than someone saying 'forget youth development, I'm going to buy 25 to 31-year-olds from abroad fully cooked'."
The new proposals were partly motivated by the intervention of the former culture secretary Andy Burnham, who last year challenged football authorities on a wide-ranging series of questions concerning the future of the game.
www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/sep/14/premier-league-richard-scudamore-squads
Restrictions on squad sizes will force clubs to overhaul playing staff• Squads of 25 must include eight 'home-grown' players
• 'To make rather than buy is intent' says Scudamore
Liverpool and several other Premier League clubs will have to dramatically overhaul their playing staffs for next season, when new rules will be introduced forcing them to limit squad sizes and encourage the development of "home-grown" talent.
The league's chief executive, Richard Scudamore, revealed that the 20 top-flight clubs last week agreed to the new rules. They are broadly based on Uefa's regulations for clubs competing in the Champions League and the Europa League but applying them to the Premier League as well will force some to slim down their squads in the face of accusations they are "stockpiling" talent.
Under the rules, clubs will have to name a squad of 25 players over 21 before the season begins. Eight of those players must be "home-grown", in that they must have been developed for at least three years by an English or Welsh club before their 21st birthday. They can name a second, limitless list of players under 21 and both lists can be resubmitted at the end of the January transfer window.
Liverpool will be among the worst-hit clubs. According to their website, they have 56 registered professionals with 23 battling for 17 spots for non-home-grown players within the squad under the new rules.
"It clearly encourages youth development and the promotion of young players, but, and we don't apologise for it, it goes nowhere near a nationality test because we don't believe that's right," said Scudamore. However, naturally, it is encouragement to those who are developed locally – from within your association – and that will encourage players who are qualified to play for the home country."
The Premier League, which signalled a U-turn earlier this year from its historic opposition to rules placing limits on squad sizes or introducing quotas, is likely to face criticism from some who feel the rules do not go far enough.
But Scudamore insisted the new rules would have a meaningful impact. "For players and agents, it will have an effect. It will reduce squad sizes, it will stop the warehousing of players. It will have an impact. If you're not in that 17, you're not playing. This is going to alter some dynamics," he said.
"Nothing is going to stop a club buying a 25-year-old from abroad. But they will have to get rid of someone else [to do so]. There will be some interesting discussions with those who are surplus to requirements and won't make the 17."
He refused to comment directly on the allegations about Premier League clubs scouring Europe for the best young talent in the wake of Fifa banning Chelsea from signing any new players until 2011 over the Gaël Kakuta affair.
"There aren't thousands of young people being shipped over here and brought into our academies," he said. "There are some, but the rhetoric of the last three weeks would have you believe there are boat loads coming in all the time. There are ones and twos."
The Premier League points to figures showing that 85% of the 320 academy scholars at its clubs are British, a figure that rises to 95% for the 2,486 students under the age of 16.
However, there is an acceptance that there is an issue around "transitioning" players aged between 18 and 21 to the first team. Scudamore said the new rules would help and promised it would be an area of focus for the league's new director of youth, Ged Roddy.
"It is a rule we think will give extra incentive for clubs to invest in youth development. The intention is to make a better return from investment in youth, to transition more players from the youth team to the first team. To make rather than buy is the intention," he said.
Even if it merely encouraged clubs to buy younger players he said the effect would be a positive one, using a culinary analogy to liken them to "that doughy stuff you buy half-made".
"You can buy semi-cooked stuff at 18, 19, 20 and that is better than someone saying 'forget youth development, I'm going to buy 25 to 31-year-olds from abroad fully cooked'."
The new proposals were partly motivated by the intervention of the former culture secretary Andy Burnham, who last year challenged football authorities on a wide-ranging series of questions concerning the future of the game.
www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/sep/14/premier-league-richard-scudamore-squads