FA's Greg Dyke announces plans to restrict non-EU players

[davieG]

FA chairman Greg Dyke has warned Premier League football is in danger of "having nothing to do with English people" as new proposals to limit the number of non-EU players are outlined by English football's governing body.

The FA has also revealed plans to toughen the rules on home-grown talent in the latest proposals from its commission, which was set up in 2013 to improve the England team.

The commission has also proposed changes to work permit rules having highlighted flaws in the system.

The stricter work-permit rules, approved by the Home Office on Friday, will come into force from 1 May.

Under the proposals outlined by the FA on Monday: 

• A player will have to have been registered with his club from the age of 15 - down from 18 - to qualify as 'home-grown'.


• The minimum number of home-grown players in a club's first-team squad of 25 will increase from eight to 12, phased over four years from 2016.

• At least two home-grown players must also be 'club-trained' players - defined as any player, irrespective of nationality, that has been registered for three years at their club from the age of 15.

• Only the best non-EU foreign players will be granted permission to play in England.

Dyke on spotting the next Harry Kane

Speaking to the BBC's sports editor Dan Roan, Dyke explained the rationale behind the FA's new proposals by highlighting the impact of Harry Kane.

The Tottenham striker, 21, only made his first Premier League start for Spurs in April 2014, and is this season's top scorer with 19 goals.

Harry Kane has earned a first England call-up on the back of a superb season for Tottenham

"We have to do this by negotiation with the different leagues and with the clubs - we have to convince them that this makes sense for English football," said Dyke.

"And we are helped by Harry Kane in truth - we are helped by seeing a young kid come into the Spurs team and become the top scorer in English football.

"How many other Harry Kanes are around in the youth teams of Premier League clubs? It was almost by chance that Tim Sherwood became manager at Tottenham for a time and put him in the side - otherwise he would still be out on loan at Millwall or somewhere else."

'An awful lot of bog-standard foreign players'

"If you apply the system we are just introducing over the last five years, a third of non-EU overseas players that have come here wouldn't get in," Dyke added.

"We don't want to stop the outstanding talent coming here, but there are an awful lot of bog-standard players as well.

"If we could get all this through, over the next three, four or five years, you could see the numbers of home-grown players going up from a percentage in the high 20s to 40%. It matters that this happens across the whole of English football, but it particularly matters to the top end of the Premier League.

Just three English players were in the Manchester City line-up across the two legs of their recent Champions League loss to Barcelona

"The future England team by and large play for the top six sides. If you look in Germany, or Spain, it's always the same. And amongst the top six sides the decline in English players is quite marked.

"If you look at who is playing in the Champions League, the English numbers compared to the Germans, the Spanish or the Brazilians, are pathetic."

BBC Sport's Ben Smith

"Greg Dyke made this issue a priority from the moment he became FA chairman in 2013. His fear is that England will drift into international football obscurity if nothing is done and he wants to be the man to do it.

"Dyke has always been a populist and these proposals will chime with many England fans. But the acid test is how they are received by Premier League clubs.

"They will have to vote for the reforms by a two-thirds majority for them to come into effect. Dyke will argue that there are more Harry Kanes and Ryan Masons ready to come through the system if only the Premier League clubs can clear a pathway for them."

Danny Mills on work permits

Former England full-back Danny Mills sits on the FA commission established by Dyke two years ago.

"Something like 95% of work permit appeals go through. On what basis? We want the creme de la creme ," said Mills.

"We want the best players. But we are starting to get foreign players in the Championship and League Two. That reduces the number of English players who can come through the system.

"It matters to the English game. Harry Kane is adored. Fans will always have an affinity to the local lad or English players. It bridges the gap between superstar and fan, between the exceptional and the normal.

"It is very important that those links stay there."

Work permit changes - key points

Read more on the work permit changes on the FA website.

Currently, players must have played at least 75% of their country's internationals over the past two years. That will now change according to ranking. Players must play at least 30% of matches in the last two years if their country is in the top 10, 45% if ranked between 11th and 20th, 60% between 21st and 30th and 75% if between 31st and 50th.

Player currently must have played for a country in the top 70 when rankings are averaged over two years. That will be lowered to the top 50.

All players are currently measured over the last two years. The new regulations will allow leeway for players aged 21 or under to only fulfil the criteria for the previous 12 months.

The FA estimates that 33% of the players who gained entry under the old system would not have been granted a work visa under the new rules. That means that over the last five years there would have been 42 fewer non-European players playing in the Premier and Football Leagues.

English game needs foreign players - Hartson

Former Arsenal striker John Hartson says the FA need to be careful about bringing in new rules as foreign players can help to improve their English counterparts.

"The best players I ever worked with were Dennis Bergkamp and Henrik Larsson," said the ex-Wales international. "I learned so much from them.

John Hartson played alongside the likes of Dennis Bergkamp and Marc Overmars at Arsenal

"Having 12 English players in a squad may not be a bad rule but you don't want to prevent good foreign players coming over and playing in this country.

"By that, you could miss out on a couple of really good foreign players who could be of benefit to the Premier League."

The former English hopeful's view

Lee Canoville, a former Arsenal defender who left the club in 2001 having made just one senior appearance in four years, welcomed the proposals.

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Former Arsenal defender Lee Canoville says English players can be forgotten

"If the FA can limit the number of foreign players in a squad, that will help," he said. "A world-class player is entitled to come and play in the Premier League. But players who are not quite ready? What is the difference between our lads who are not quite ready? A rule needs to come in.

"Something obviously has to be done, because who knows in 10 more years what is going to happen, The Premier League will still be going, I am sure, it will still be exciting and brilliant but everyone wants that buzz back when we can look forward to the World Cup and European Championships.

"It is so important these young lads, like Daniel Sturridge and Harry Kane, get their chance. I am sure there are a lot more players out there who just need that chance."

[bovril]

I'm sure this gets dragged out every 5 years or so. The owners, media men and casual punters won't allow anything that would damage the 'product'.

[Guest]

Some of these are great ideas but of course they won't go through. The big few will stop them.

[purpleronnie]

Being decades behind other countries when it comes too grass roots football is a much bigger concern.

[ousefox]

I want the best players in our league. It may be because I was young at the time but this was barely mentioned between 2002-2006 when we had a competent national side. If they were good enough, they'd be getting into the Premier League. We've already had Moyes mention that this is the weakest Premier League in years and I don't think this will help. 

[Vicki Vixen]

Does John Hartson realise that Holland and Sweden are in the EU?

[Guest MattP]

Does John Hartson realise that Holland and Sweden are in the EU?

Course he doesn't - he's absolutely thick as shit.

[Donut]

The best English players will play.

 

Clubs will pick the best players. They dont care where they come from. If Sergio Aguero or Eden Hazard were English, they would have as much opportunity to play as if they werent.

 

These quota arguments once again completely ignore the fact that in decades like the 70s, England had a top division full of English players, and we couldnt even qualify for the tournaments. So its not exactly a new phenomenon of the England team being poor, and its not something that has become more of an issue now since the Premier League. The England national set up has achieved one tournament win and two semi finals in its entire history as a nation. So its very easy to point the finger and talk about the Premier League as the sole problem.

 

What you could argue is DISTRIBUTION of wealth as being the problem perhaps.

 

It is up to us to have the grass roots setup, coaches in place and infastructure to be able to coach young players with proper technical attributes to make them great players. Not just stamina, pace and physicality, im talking technique, intelligence, awareness, positioning.

 

Until we do that, Premier League clubs will go abroad and buy players who will improve their team. It doesnt matter where they come from.

 

The national team is not going to benefit from having more English players just for the sake of it. We will just have a league full of average English players that werent good enough for the national team anyway.

[davieG]

The best English players will play.

 

Clubs will pick the best players. They dont care where they come from. If Sergio Aguero or Eden Hazard were English, they would have as much opportunity to play as if they werent.

 

These quota arguments once again completely ignore the fact that in decades like the 70s, England had a top division full of English players, and we couldnt even qualify for the tournaments. So its not exactly a new phenomenon of the England team being poor, and its not something that has become more of an issue now since the Premier League. The England national set up has achieved one tournament win and two semi finals in its entire history as a nation. So its very easy to point the finger and talk about the Premier League as the sole problem.

 

What you could argue is DISTRIBUTION of wealth as being the problem perhaps.

 

It is up to us to have the grass roots setup, coaches in place and infastructure to be able to coach young players with proper technical attributes to make them great players. Not just stamina, pace and physicality, im talking technique, intelligence, awareness, positioning.

 

Until we do that, Premier League clubs will go abroad and buy players who will improve their team. It doesnt matter where they come from.

 

The national team is not going to benefit from having more English players just for the sake of it. We will just have a league full of average English players that werent good enough for the national team anyway.

It just might force those PL clubs with the big money to invest in those grass roots because that's where their future players will have to come from.

[Bugg]

Does John Hartson realise that Holland and Sweden are in the EU?

Probably not, he still thinks a penalty is called a PELANTY.

[Super_horns]

In reality we need to look at how many youth players clubs are buying from other countries - that is where the problems start?

 

As for non-EU players being banned - well that won't stop the likes of Newcastle going shopping in France of course.

 

On Talksport they were saying it wouldn't affect South American players for example as they can get EU passports from Spain/Italy etc. (as we well know!)

[Stadt]

Or how about we get more decent coaches? Forcing the use of English players isn't automatically going to make us better.

Holland is a smaller country with better players because the coaches are better

[purpleronnie]

Or how about we get more decent coaches? Forcing the use of English players isn't automatically going to make us better.

Holland are a smaller country with better players because the coaches are better

And the numbers too, even though the numbers may be slightly distorted the differences are immense.

 

England has 1,161 coaches at Uefa ‘A’ level compared with 12,720 in Spain and 5,500 in Germany. At pro licence level, England has 203 coaches, Spain 2,140 and Germany more than 1,000.

[bovril]

Does John Hartson realise that Holland and Sweden are in the EU?

 

He probably doesn't even know Wales is.

[Miquel The Work Geordie]

The best English players will play.

 

I don't get this argument. Surely English players will only reach their potential with game time? What irks me isn't the fact that dogshit English players aren't given a shot, more that clubs in this country don't seem as keen on developing their own domestic talent but buying in from Spain / France / Germany / Portugal where clubs are offered the time to blood one or two youngsters and as such have developed considerably more.

 

Hypothetical example - eighteen year old English Man City centre half has the scope to be great, beyond great, but has next to no experience of first team football. A centre half for Lille is the same age but has European and league experience a plenty. The club would buy from overseas in 9 times out of 10 because the game over here is so highly fuelled by instantaneous gratification and immediate success (I'm aware this exists in Europe but not quite to the same extent we experience in England). Top clubs in this country seem scared of throwing in their own talents, the notable exceptions being Arsenal and Liverpool. 

 

With regards to your original point, I'd rather the Premier League was flooded with average English players with scope to improve than average foreign ones. That Mangala that City bought is 30 million notes worth of shit, for example.

 

I'm not a PL basher by any means, neither am I a fanboy - but if "only the best English players will play" then surely the same rule needs to be applied to foreign imports. There is no chance that Newcastle couldn't pick up and nurture a few gems on the North East signed up in their academy rather than buy in toss like Haidara / Reviere, surely? Young English talent should be given time to develop as a priority and we as a nation need a bigger collective patience.

[Vicki Vixen]

For Dyke to talk about protecting English players when the UK is part of the EU labour market is completlely misleading. The reality is that Crawley Town could sign the entire Estonia national squad, and there isn't a thing Dyke could do to stop it.

[Richard]

All it will do is stop signings like Kramaric

[Leicesterpool]

This is not the first time this been suggested, once again Uefa and Fifa will get involved and will make sure this won't happen.

[Soar Fox]

Or how about we get more decent coaches? Forcing the use of English players isn't automatically going to make us better.

Holland is a smaller country with better players because the coaches are better

Spot on.

It would also help if coaches in this country actually looked at technical ability & skill, rather than releasing them because they aren't 6 foot 2 and can't run the 100 meters in 11 seconds.

[Stadt]

Exactly.

I don't understand why people don't think we could introduce a non EU limit, they have one in Spain.

[Dan]

The financial domination of the Premier League is forever going to limit how many opportunities players in this country get. English clubs can afford the immediate flight to quality (well, supposedly) and as a result don't 'need' to develop their own.

 

We're behind at grass roots level and we have a league which is counter productive to giving our younger players a chance. How many of you lot would be happy to see us gamble and chuck Chilwell in against West Ham? I'd guess about 10%.