Premier League's home-grown player rule is so badly thought out, that it stinks

By David Maddock

Published 16:03 15/09/09

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So, within the space of a week, Premier League clubs have been forcefully encouraged to stop stealing young players from other clubs, while at exactly the same time new rules are introduced to actively encourage them to snatch more young players from other clubs.

At best, the new rules introduced by the Premier League from next season regarding the need to have home grown talent in the squad are ill thought out. At worst they are madness.

The rule states that a player shall be deemed home grown if he has spent at least three years at a club before the age of 21. So what is going to happen now? Yup, the top English clubs will be involved in an almighty scramble to sign the best 18 year olds in the world.

Given that it is a REQUIREMEMT now for them to have those players, and any older English player will now cost a King’s (club) ransom, the pressure to snatch all the best kids will now only intensify.

So those European clubs like Lyon, Auxerre, Heerenveen, and even Barcelona who have fabulous youth academies, will see more of their player’s tempted away. And English clubs with good youth records like Leeds, Crewe and Cardiff will see more and more of their kids spirited off.

It stinks, because ultimately when those kids get to the Premier League, they will find the gap from academy to first team almost impossible to bridge. So their development could be stunted. And in the mean time, the clubs that produce them will stop bothering to fund their academies.

All that will happen with this new rule is that the top clubs will extend their Champions’ League squads to the Premier League. So they will have say 20 senior professionals, only three of which need to be English, and then the rest will be kids who have little or no chance of actually playing.

In some ways, they will have even less chance to play, because they will always be required on stand by in case of injuries for the first team.

It is so badly thought out, that it stinks. And it will simply create even more of the morally dubious tactics all the top clubs must now adopt towards stealing the best young talent across Europe.

What is required is not a badly thought out rigid rule, it is a well thought out encouragement for teams to field their own players produced through their own academies from a young age. That is the way to help English football.