Quotelink no good unless you're registered. Any chance of pasting the text?Originally Posted by joeSoap
http://www.unison.ie/sportsdesk/foot...=12&si=1276639
This could really screw Arsenal and particularly Chel$ki
link no good unless you're registered. Any chance of pasting the text?
I thought you were off the drink Ronnie?
"No, I drink to help me mind my own business....can I get you one? (c) Ronnie Drew
Per Irish Indo.
TOP Premiership clubs such as Chelsea and Arsenal may be forced into a radical overhaul of their squads and transfer policy next summer if UEFA push through new rules to enforce quotas of 'home-grown' players next season.
The UEFA executive will meet in Vienna on November 11 to finalise plans which would force all clubs in Europe to have between six and eight players in their squad who are 'home-grown'.
The criteria for this will not be based on nationality, but on whether a player was developed at any academy in this country.
UEFA are aware that top clubs would try to get around the rule by increasing their squad size, and another radical rule would limit squad sizes to 25 registered professionals. This will force the bigger clubs to drastically cut down the number of players in their first-team squads.
Chelsea - who have spent almost £200m on mostly imported talent since Roman Abramovich bought the club 18 months ago - are known to be opposed to the plan. Manchester United and Arsenal - members of the powerful G14 group of top European clubs - are also thought to be against it.
But UEFA are confident they can push their plan through with the support of smaller clubs largely because they do not need European Commission approval.
The criteria for specifying who is 'home-grown' are not based around nationality so there is no breach of the Treaty of Rome, which stipulates that any rule that seeks to limit the right of clubs to employ a player from another EU country would be illegal. The G14 would therefore have no legal grounds for objecting.
If UEFA's plans go through, then European football would be changed as dramatically as it was by the Bosman ruling a decade ago.
The Bosman ruling rendered old UEFA restrictions on hiring European Union players illegal. Ever since, UEFA have watched with alarm as the top clubs of Europe have filled their teams with imports, with clubs like Chelsea fielding a team without a single player qualified to play for England.
Four weeks ago the plan was debated at the Club Forum held in UEFA headquarters in Nyon. Over 100 clubs were present including representatives of all the big Premiership clubs, including Peter Kenyon, chief executive of Chelsea, David Gill, chief executive of Manchester United, David Dein, vice-chairman of Arsenal and Rick Parry, chief executive of Liverpool.
The debate was lively with the bigger clubs mostly opposing the plan. However, UEFA drew comfort from the fact that the smaller clubs welcomed the idea and that even some of the bigger European clubs, struggling in the shadow of the riches available to clubs like Chelsea, have privately expressed their support for the plan to UEFA.
In the long term, it could help Europe's less affluent clubs hang on to promising players that would otherwise be poached by wealthy rivals in England, Spain and Italy.
The executive are alarmed by the increasing disparity in European football, both between the 'haves' of some northern and southern European clubs and the 'have-nots' of eastern Europe, whose best players since Bosman are regularly enticed abroad.
There is also concern about the growing disparity within the richer European soccer nations such as England where the presence of a few rich Premiership clubs cannot obscure the vast majority of poorer clubs. This plan would promote transfers between clubs in the Football League and the Premiership, helping redistribute money in English football.
Not all the Premiership clubs would oppose the plan and Keith Wyness, chief executive of Everton said: "We would look at these proposals with interest. We are a local club which believes in home grown players, the club of Wayne Rooney and anything that encourages that is welcome."
The UEFA executive are unanimous in their support for this change.
The plan would be presented to the UEFA Congress in Tallinn next April and could be introduced by the start of next season on a gradual basis with clubs being forced to field six home-grown players in the first year, rising to eight in two years. (©Daily Telegraph, London)
Mihir Bose
this is only going to benifit the large clubs with some form of academy structure. what i can see happening is thousands of young players been enticed to the big clubs in england from eastern european countries as well as ireland and other countries with underdevolped clubs and leagues. eventually these clubs will pick the hand full of players they need leaving thousands of young fellas at 18 years of age with their hopes dashed and no formal education to fall back on. the big clubs will no longer be able to find players in foreign leagues and entice them with big money. this means that if a player hasn't been picked up by a big club at 16 his footballing career is limited to the country of his birth.
"If I wanted you to understand it, I would have explained it better." Johan Cruyff
I don't see the new "I can't believe it's not the 3 foreigners rule" being a bad thing. They only need 8 home grown players. Even with squad limitations that's 17 players from anywhere else. Also young players let go by Man U and Arsenal, etc will be considered home grown in England and therefore appealing to lesser clubs. What i wonder is what if someone like Fabregas wanted to return to Spain. Would he be impeded because he's "home grown" in England?
Broadly speaking I'm in favour of anything that redistributes power, wealth trophies etc... At the same time the introduction of the transfer window was designed to stop big clubs literally buying trophies but has had close on the opposite effect -hobbling the weaker teams who need to strengthen a squad to survive or sell to raise cash.
But if this hinders the further centralisation of power, success, wealth and crucially to all of those ...players then it'll be a good days work.
" I wish to God that someone would be able to block out the voices in my head for five minutes, the voices that scream, over and over again: "Why do they come to me to die?"
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