Homegrown Player Rule (England)

The Homegrown Player Rule has been an initiative in England and the Premier League to allow for more domestic, English players to be a brought up from a younger age in hopes of creating more talented English players. Currently, the Premier League does not have a maximum restriction on the number of foreign players allowed on a team, but does require at least eight homegrown players.^[1] Greg Dyke, new chairman of the Football Association (FA), wants to implement much stronger regulation of foreign players. His intention is clear as stated in an op-ed piece so that England can win the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.^[2] Some of Dyke’s propositions include: homegrown players in a top-flight 25-man first-team squad be increased from eight to 12 ^[1] two of which must be brought up in the teams youth system, and also changing the definition of what it is to be a homegrown player. Currently, to be classified as homegrown one must be on an English team for at least three years before the age of twenty-one^[3] in which Dyke would like to reduce to eighteen years. This would mean a teenager would have to be with the club at a maximum age of fifteen and players are not allowed to move across national boundaries, even European Union boundaries, before 16.^[4] Meaning such that, if a foreign player joined an English youth academy at sixteen, in three years time he would be nineteen. Thus said player failing to qualify as a homegrown player due to the fact he would be older than eighteen. This has become such a hot topic is because there are currently a group of players who have played 309 international games between them but none of them for England.^[3] While there is currently a list of foreign players, to show the disparity of homegrown players versus foreign players on any given team, the below picture will illustrate such ideas, SkySports hosts an image detailing the number of homegrown players in each Premier League team. With an apparent low amount of English Players on some teams, especially the larger clubs, this New York Times^[5] graph in the article further outlines the disparity between table standings if the only goals scored in season counted were those scored by English players.

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