Football League set to introduce its own 'home grown player' rule

There have been several interesting recent developments in football policy including a potentially very positive step by the Football League to encourage clubs to invest in developing young players.

The Football League, taking the lead from UEFA's successful 'home grown players' rule which is now used in the Champions League and UEFA Cup, is hoping to establish its own version of the rule, which would take effect from next season, and be binding on the 72 clubs in the Championship, League One and League Two.

This idea, which has been put forward by the Football League's board of directors, would require at least four players in a team's 16-man match-day squad to have been playing domestically for at least three years before their 21st birthday. However, to conform with European law, they would not have to be English.

It is significant that the Football League, whose Chairman Brian Mawhinney was a Conservative Cabinet minister in John Major's government, has chosen to follow the UEFA model rather than the approach favoured by FIFA's Sepp Blatter, whose 'six plus five' idea would impose more onerous burdens on clubs and contravene European law on employment and non-discrimination on the grounds of nationality.

The Football League rule would be both proportionate and also an important step in encouraging clubs to invest in developing their youth programmes though it would bestill better if it were to require clubs to have four (or even just two) of their 16 from the clubs own youth scheme instead of just generally 'domestic'. Football league clubs, lacking the financial muscle to be able to compose a squad of bought players, usually have to rely on a combination of youth-team graduates, players signed on free transfers, and the occasional cash or loan signing. As Lord Mawhinney has pointed out, "fourteen of the 23-man England squad that beat Germany in Berlin, last week, were developed by youth development programmes at Football League clubs".

The proposal will be discussed at an extraordinary meeting of the Football League clubs on December 18th. I for one hope it is adopted. The Football League is developing into a hot-bed of extremely talented young footballers and a 'home grown players' rule will only serve to further encourage this.