The internet has been buzzing about the Premier League’s new “homegrown” rule and I’ve been thinking of a way to explain it in the simplest possible terms. Clearly, someone needs to explain it because judging by the fact that major English news outlets are getting it dead wrong it must be more complicated than that time the USA faked the moon landing.
The trick is to think of the rule not as a “you must have X number of Y type players” but rather as a player cap with a further “anti-foreign grown” restriction. Thusly:
- No team may have more than 25 players over the age of 21.
- Of those 25 players, no team may have more than 17 “foreign-grown” players over the age of 21
That’s it. That’s the whole rule.*
It’s basically a 17 player cap with two exceptions: under 21 players (unlimited) and over 21 “homegrown” players (up to 8). If a team wanted, they could submit a list of 17 fat Italians over the age of 50 and they would qualify to play football next season. Likewise, if a team so desired they could list a team of 35 players all under the age of 21 and all “foreign grown” and they would qualify.
The thing that’s not being picked up by the major papers in their xenophobic zeal to persecute ole Frenchie Wenger is that what a team could NOT do is name a team of 26 English players all over the age of 21. Why? Because there is a 25 man cap on players regardless of where they were grown as long as they are over 21. This is why teams like Tottenham are looking like they may run afoul the new rule.
This is also why Manchester City looks like they are going to have a hard time with the new rule. You can’t have more than 25 players over the age of 21 no matter what, so that will limit them. You also can’t have more than 17 foreign-grown players so that means that no matter how little playing time they are looking to get, Man City will probably be keeping a fair number of their English players as backups to the foreign stars. So, I fully expect to see Gareth Barry on Man City’s roster next season as the third backup to Yaya Toure. Similarly, Joe Hart is going to be needed on the squad for his passport only as he will play backup to Shay Given who has fully recovered it seems.
Clearly, this new rule will make the English national team stronger as English players are used as backups and makeweights in filling out squad lists!
Meanwhile, Arsenal’s list of players is fairly straightforward (copied from the dot com and rearranged in my new logic):
Foreign-grown players over 21 (you can have up to 17 of these):
- 1 Manuel Almunia (May 19, 1977)
- 2 Abou Diaby (May 11, 1986)
- 3 Bacary Sagna (February 14, 1983)
- 5 Thomas Vermaelen (November 14, 1985)
- 6 Laurent Koscielny
- 7 Tomas Rosicky (October 4, 1980)
- 8 Samir Nasri (June 26, 1987)
- 11 Robin van Persie (August 6, 1983)
- 21 Lukasz Fabianski (April 18, 1985)
- 23 Andrey Arshavin (May 29, 1981)
- 27 Emmanuel Eboue (June 4, 1983)
- 29 Marouane Chamakh (January 10, 1984)
“Homegrown” players over 21 (you can add 8, or more if you wish):
- 4 Cesc Fabregas (May 4, 1987)
- 15 Denilson (February 16, 1988)
- 17 Alex Song (September 9, 1987)
- 20 Johan Djourou (January 18, 1987)
- 24 Vito Mannone (March 2, 1988)
- 52 Nicklas Bendtner (January 16, 1988)
- 22 Gael Clichy (July 26, 1985)
Under 21s (you can have unlimited numbers of these):
- 12 Carlos Vela (March 1, 1989)*
- 14 Theo Walcott (March 16, 1989)*
- 16 Aaron Ramsey (December 26, 1990)*
- 19 Jack Wilshere (January 1, 1992)*
- 28 Kieran Gibbs (September 26, 1989)*
- 30 Armand Traore (October 8, 1989)*
- 53 Wojciech Szczesny (April 18, 1990)*
So, Arsenal could add 5 more foreign grown players if we want. We could then add 1 more home grown player if we want. And we could still name all of the u-21 players to the squad. That would make our squad 32 players deep and give us plenty of room for injuries and suspensions and blah blah blah. I know that’s something to dream about because we know for sure that Arsene isn’t going to go out and buy 6 new players, but the point is that he could if he wanted. Personally, I’d just appreciate it if he bought one or two players to fill in the defense: a keeper and some giant like Per Mertersaker. We have the room for them in the team with out having to sell anyone, loan anyone out, or even worry about the new “anti-foreign grown” player cap.
Journo’s… please take note.
Oh, and one more thing. Some times if I publish an article that is in any way conceived as negative I get people either jumping down my throat in the comments or dedicating an entire article (headline and all) trying to slam me. Frankly, I think the whole thing is a bit sad but I understand where it comes from. There are only three kinds of Gooners: those who love to hate Arsenal, those who love to hate other Gooners, and those who just love the Arsenal.
I’m the kind of Gooner who gets chills when I watch Jack Wilshere against Man U in CWD4CESC’s awesome compilation video. Hell, I could watch a 4 minute loop of him clattering Gary Neville but the rest of the video is just as spectacular. Can you imagine what he would do to a team if he had Arshavin on the end of some of those passes?
*Ok, so this isn’t really the “whole rule” because there are legal definitions of when a player turns 21 (it’s the same as FIFA’s definition), exceptions for injuries, definitions of “home grown” (schooled in England or Wales for 3 years — consecutive or not — between the ages of 16 and 21), and a bunch of other stuff. You can read all about it on the Premier League’s own page. There are other rules that teams have to live by as well. Rules like UEFA’s Champions League squad rules and so on. This article is just a tongue in cheek look at the foolishness of the “home-grown” or as I like to think of it “anti-foreign grown” rule. Please, do not use this article in any school papers or to write a paid article on the Daily Fail. Thanks, the Management.
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Sorry – dumb question: What is “homegrown”? Obviously not born in england, right?
July 29th, 2010 at 7:58 am
ignore question. I looked it up. thanks.
it’s not up to 8 homegrown over 21, it’s at least 8
July 29th, 2010 at 8:42 am
@Bobby Peru, No. As stated above it’s a maximum of 17 non home grown players over 21 years old. If you have less than 8 home grown over 21, then you simply reduce your squad size. e.g. I have 17 non home grown players, and only 3 home grown players = I am only allowed to register a squad of 20 players (+ as many under 21′s of any kind that I want)
July 29th, 2010 at 8:42 am
I’m with Bobby here… my interpretation was that of your over-21 players, 8 MUST be homegrown, as a minimum. Otherwise I am highly confused. What would be the point in CAPPING the number of homegrown at 8 (as you are suggesting)? Isn’t one of the goals of this new rule to encourage teams to increase the number of homegrown players on their rosters?
It wouldn’t be the first time the FA makes a retarded rule though, so I’m not saying your interpretation is wrong.
But, saying I’m right, and it’s an 8 MINIMUM, that means we’re in trouble? Does that mean Wenger’s next buy has to be Jagielka or Cahill to bring that quota up to the minimum?
July 29th, 2010 at 8:50 am
Forget my comment – I’m seeing it now on second read… the number of foreigners over 21 is the category that is capped – 17 max. So, if you intent on fielding a team with no under-21′s then your roster at best can only have 25 players, 17/8 at worst.
So, in Arsenal’s case, assuming say, we buy Metersacker, we’d have 13/7/unlimited.
Got it (I think)…. still confused. Must be the Bailey’s in my coffee this morning.
July 29th, 2010 at 9:04 am
@Brahmabull, Exactly… now pass the baileys. Actually, forget that, got any whiskey?
July 29th, 2010 at 8:58 am
@Brahmabull, It couldn’t possibly be an 8 minimum rule, some teams just wouldn’t be able to fill it and then what? it’s unworkable.
Nor is it an 8 maximum, you’re looking at it the wrong way round – it’s 17 non home grown players over 21 as a maximum and a maximum of 25 players over 21.
This means you could have 10 ‘foreign’ players over 21 and 15 home grown or in my example above, just a couple of home grown with 17 foriegners. But this would force a reduced squad size (of over 21 players).
As well as the aim being to encourage local talent, the 25 man cap rule is there to try and prevent player hoarding, forcing teams to sell on or loan out surplus players and, potentially, make the league more competitive.
To finish, as I said to a colleague about it just today: “it’s a nice idea, a noble aim, hindered by eu law, implemented by idiots and misunderstood by almost everyone.”
Thanks for the JW video 7. Watching this video only serves to remind all of us of the incredible talent Arsenal has on its books. I think Jack has the potential to rival Cesc in the not-too-distant future.
July 29th, 2010 at 8:30 am
@Peter, Ramsey too (hopefully he’ll mae a full recovery physical and emotional)!!
July 29th, 2010 at 9:00 am
definately…i see Jack as the midfield equivilant of rooney
Hi guys,
Great article, its a subject we’ve written about a couple of times at ArsenalArsenal. I hope you don’t mind but I’ve put a link up to the video clip of Wilshere.
July 29th, 2010 at 10:28 am
@Rasp, No problem. I don’t know why your comment got into my spam filter.
July 29th, 2010 at 10:34 am
@Rasp, wow, just read the post you linked, well done.
Everyone here should read it to see how we stack up to the others:
http://arsenalarsenal.wordpress.com/2010/07/29/arsenal-get-it-right-the-press-get-it-wrong/
One question – am I reading it right that it’s the club that owns the player that counts rather than where they actually play (for the three years)?
ie – we sign player who is 17 and he immediately goes on loan to a Spanish club until he’s 21. He still counts as homegrown for England right?
July 29th, 2010 at 8:53 am
I believe you’re right, because I’ve heard discussion about Vela being considered “homegrown” even though he was on loan for a couple of years. Botelho too, Nordveidt et al.
It looks like Arsene was way ahead of the curve on this one. Funny to watch Chelsea and Man City sweating it now.
July 29th, 2010 at 9:14 am
@Brahmabull, Its almost as if Arsenal runs the FA for once.
I <3 Jack. I remember writing about him in late 2008 when he (and the other kids) took Wigan apart in the Carling Cup, and being massively impressed. Now is his time to shine.
July 29th, 2010 at 10:28 am
@fourstar, I agree. That video gave me chills and I only get chills when I see or hear something very very special.
well i have had enough of waiting for signings, checking everyday, hopeful,, just to feel disappointed as usual. i’m not going to watch the eimrates cup this weekend. why bother really. if the team had been strengthened i’d be excited but i’m just fed up. if we go into the season with these keepers and defence we’re just pissing against the wind. no decent keeper, 3 centre-backs one untrusted, one injury-prone, 1 striker who’s never played a premier league game to start the season. our captain openly admitting his heart is somewhere else. the fans deserve better.
oh but arsene will tell us we’ll develop from within and our mental strength will shine through. yawn!
July 29th, 2010 at 9:16 am
@Chief Gooner,
“There are only three kinds of Gooners: those who love to hate Arsenal, those who love to hate other Gooners, and those who just love the Arsenal.”
I’m type 3. You are type 1 Chief. How can you expect AW to respect your opinion if you are just ready to shott anything the club does down.
July 29th, 2010 at 9:23 am
@Barndoor Bendtner,
i actually am almost always positive but these recent transfer windows are just painful.
i love arsenal and only arsenal. not cesc fabregas, not arsene wenger. arsenal will always go on.
and AW doesn’t care about the fans opinion. he’s known for 3 years now that the fans crave new signings, crave having a team that can compete. he fills us with empty promises of signings and doesn’t fulfill them.
we aren’t expecting him to go man city, but the goalkeeping and centre back situation is becoming farcical for a club of our size
July 29th, 2010 at 9:34 am
I’m with you Chief. It’s one thing to be like Man City or Chelsea or whomever, and constantly be looking outside the club/academy for reinforcements. I don’t want that, and I’m sure a lot of other Gooners are happy to see the Wilsheres, Gibbs, Bartelys et al come up through the ranks.
But going into this year it was very very VERY clear that we had a big problem at goalkeeper and CB, one that the “kids” were not going to be able to fill in the short-term. And he (Arsene) has apparently done NOTHING to fix the situation. Now, unless there are some announcements in the next couple of weeks, we are going to be heading into the new season with some huge problems, that our wonderful attacking players will not be able to paper over – is it Arsene’s hope to beat everyone 4-3 this year? He said it himself at the end of last year… we conceded too many goals to be challenge Chelsea in the end.
Who out there thinks we are in a position to concede fewer goals than last year? Not me.
July 29th, 2010 at 9:27 am
@Barndoor Bendtner, also i’ve not missed an arsenal game for about 10 years, friendlies included.
just look at the sale of eduardo. we suffered last season because we only had 3 strikers. low and behold we’re facing a new season with 3 strikers, one crocked, one unfit. its ridiculous. i am fed up with the transfer situation. i’m sure i’m not the only one
July 29th, 2010 at 12:50 pm
@Barndoor Bendtner, i suggest there is a 4th type of gooner. the gestapo gooners. those who like to accuse other fans of “hating arsenal”, “being a plastic” or “being a spud” for saying anything against anyone related to the club even when its constructive criticism where fans want to see progression at the club.
they are usually a member of the wenger brigade. get offended when anyone says anything against wenger. even when the criticism is 100% founded in the lack of ambition shown by the club in the transfer market. yes the finances look good but players like henry and fabregas want to leave because they actually want to win trophies.
unlike the gestapo gooner who sees 4th spot as a trophy
July 29th, 2010 at 11:06 am
You sound like the type of guy who moans he doesn’t win anything on the lottery but doesn’t buy a ticket!
July 29th, 2010 at 11:20 am
@Bull,
thats an idiot comment there. i just bought the two new jerseys online 2 weeks ago, i have the blue one and i spent a couple of thousand dollars to go back to see them last season. i would say i bought a lottery ticket.
its muppets that follow without question are the problem. how bought changing your name to Sheep?
This just in
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=810790&sec=transfers&cc=5901&campaign=rss&source=soccernet
The way I interpret it “Thank you Barca for your interest in me, but F*ck you!!”
July 29th, 2010 at 9:31 am
@Akash, Nicely done by Cesc. I don’t think it’s a “F*ck you” at all, but the mature, well-reasoned response of someone who knows that he’ll be playing alongside these guys on the Spanish team for some time to come. I particularly liked the last two sentences, which, somehow, Skysports neglected to add to their reporting of it.
http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11661_6285161,00.html
July 29th, 2010 at 9:58 am
@JV Mauer, ESPN: no agenda. Skysports: agenda.
July 29th, 2010 at 10:00 am
@ctpa,
but when you think about it the only agenda sky should have is to keep cesc at arsenal considering the money they invest in premier league tv rights
July 29th, 2010 at 10:57 am
@Chief Gooner, no, sky sports’ agenda is to create more hooplah about this “story” so that they can get more clicks.
just to say it’s Per Mertesacker not Merterseacker.
i hope i understand the homegrown rule…
From the dot com: “Every club will have to name a first-team squad of no more than 25, of which a maximum of 17 may not be home-grown players.”
I think it just ensures clubs wont have more than 17 “foreign-grown” players, but not forcing clubs to have at least 8 Englishmen/homegrown players.
Please buy some Wenger, dont waste the quota too much….
a real good keeper will already make our squad look much stronger on paper…
The only thing I am not certain of regarding the homegrown rule is:
If a player holds a British or Welsh passport (is a citizen), but grew up and played his football in another country, will he be considered homegrown or not since he was not employed by an English or Welsh organization for 3 years before turning 21?
Would be much appreciated if someone can figure that one out.
July 29th, 2010 at 9:50 am
@Caribkid69, my interpretation is he’s not homegrown but i’m not 100%. so owen hargreaves wouldn’t be homegrown.
July 29th, 2010 at 10:30 am
@Caribkid69, they are NOT homegrown.
July 29th, 2010 at 10:51 am
@Tim, Someone like Hargreaves, Yes?
July 29th, 2010 at 10:58 am
@Akash,
Owen Hargreaves is not homegrown.
Passports don’t matter in determining “homegrown-ness” it’s where they trained for 3 years between the ages of 16 and 21. Hargreaves, while holding an English passport, trained in Germany. Cesc, while holding a Spanish passport, trained in London.
Cesc is homegrown, Hargreaves is not.
July 29th, 2010 at 2:49 pm
I sent a question regarding that issue to the Premiere League and they said they will get back to me with an answer in 1 business day.
I’ll let you all know the answer when I get it.
BTW, it does read like Hargreaves would not be considered as homegrown.
July 29th, 2010 at 5:16 pm
@Caribkid69, I think they have to avoid looking at nationality in order to avoid falling foul of EU laws regarding free movement. It seems to me that this “home grown” stuff is an attempt to tip-toe around the EU.
I’m tired of people going on about us struggling with the home grown rule. It’s one of the biggest farces in football that we don’t produce enough British talent. James Harper, Steve Sidwell, David Bentley, Anthony Stokes, Jermaine Pennant, Ashley Cole, Jerome Thomas and Stuart Taylor all have experience in the top flights of England or Scotland. That’s more than the average top British club, and thats not to mention some of the all time greats such as TA06 and PM10. Just because we haven’t produced a John Terry or a Steven Gerrard in the last 10 years were concidered to be less productive than Chelsea or Liverpool. Arsnal find diamonds, Chelsea buy diamonds. Under EU laws it is illegal to classify such a rule that only a certain number of EU residents can be listed at any one company that is not within the National jurisdiction that they were born. Therefor Cesc an Denilson are as EU as Jack Wilshere and Theo Walcott. This puts Arsenal in a very strong position when the mid-season injury list kicks in as our youngsters are a lot better than the current crop coming out of Chelsea and Liverpool. Up the Arse!!
Thanks for sharing the video. A couple of those passes were sublime. If you get a chance, check out the title of A Cultured Left Foot’s blog today – I think you will be amused.
July 29th, 2010 at 10:31 am
@nycgunner, I subscribe to his RSS feed because I have always respected him. However, my interpretation is that article is a slam on mine and I find that a bit hard to take.
July 29th, 2010 at 10:45 am
@Tim, Hmm… I didn’t see it that way at all. If anything, I thought it was a reaffirmation of your thoughts from yesterday.
July 29th, 2010 at 11:16 am
@nycgunner, well, the use of “scaremongering” hardly suggests he’s thrilled about Tim’s article…
July 29th, 2010 at 11:19 am
At first I thought it was a knock on Tim’s title from yesterday, but there were a ton of articles on the web yesterday referencing Arsenal’s injury situation and the possibility of Rvp and Cesc missing Liverpool. So I actually think it wasn’t a dig over at ACLF.
July 29th, 2010 at 12:20 pm
That all being said, the regular commenters on there are the ones that keep me from really posting with any frequency at ACLF. Quite a caustic, haughty, disrespectful and most likely, self-loathing bunch.
July 29th, 2010 at 11:28 am
@b, I guess that’s the bit that confuses me cos then he goes on to tell a very similar story to the one from Tim yesterday… but I think the word “scaremongering” was used to describe some of the regular newspaper sites. Even The Guardian, which I half respect, had a link titled “Cesc and Van Persie to miss season opener”, but then when you click on the link, the actual headline of the article was “Cesc and Van Persie LIKELY to miss season opener. Laughable really.
Wenger will know better what he has on hand (or not) after the weekend’s tournament. Then he’ll have a month to to make some decisions. He will do the ‘right’ thing.
No Ronaldinho this weekend. The return of Flamini. Assess our back line against better competition.
EVENING ALL! LONDON CALLING: There was a report on Sky Sport this morning about Cesc from a Spanish Journalist that was so scaremongering and annoying, I got mad I switched off. Watching Sky at present, they have nothing to report, its such dull sports TV.
(1) Anyhow, The “Homegrown Rule” is clearly explained in Tim’s submission, so there is little else to say, except what if six of our eight “Homegrown” gets injured, what do we do, knowing we can only have 25 players in our full team. Yumm! Maybe I miss something. Someone please elaborate.
(2) Cesc has two fathers as per the latest interview from him, Arsne and his Dad. He is a divided soul.
(3) The “WILTSHIRE” or the Little Drummer Boy as I refer to him is a star as the video exhibits. He looks and acts older than his young age. I look forward to watching his game this weekwnd, he was the player of last year’s games (the Emitrates Cup), hope he goes one beter and becomes the player of the tournament.
(4) Transfer News: Its coming, have patience people.
London : Out
July 29th, 2010 at 3:00 pm
@margarette,
If 6 of our home grown players were to get injured we would be allowed to have 17 non homegrown players over 21, the remaining 2 homegrown players, and any number of players under 21 regardless of being homegrown or not. that would include the likes of Ramsey, Nordveit, Mannone, CZ, Wilshire, Vela, Gibbs, Walcott,etc.
Arsenal are in an excellent position as far as this is concerned because we have so many talented players under 21.
This rule is way too complicated for me to understand. It’s madness. How can any rule be that complicated and get passed through, that takes so long to explain?
I am excited to attend the Emirates Cup on Sunday, but admit the absence of Cesc and RvP or major new signings makes it a bit less fascinating that I had hoped when I purchased the tickets and made the travel arrangements. Still it will be a major event and I am sticking around for members day and a chance to wear the gorgeous new shirt with my two year old running around Emirates Stadium.
I think ACLF was not necessarily knocking 7amkickoff. Though, this level of sensitivity doesn’t square, Tim, with your attitude toward Alan Davies’ ribbing on the Up for Grabs Arsenal podcast! Anyway, I agree with ArseChicago that there are some real brutish posters whose main activity seems to be to slam and abuse others with whom they disagree or they believe are attacking (i.e. making any critical remark or opinion) Wenger or any Arsenal players.
But ArseChicago, that is why I didn’t like that you told Passenal to go back to ACLF, in such a hostile manner. You are right that Passenal was being ridiculous but shouting people down is what I like least on that site and among the things I like best about this site and the comments section. Incidentally, you have made negative remarks about Le Grove in these comments, but at least you are allowed to express your opinion without receiving vulgar abuse that is cheered on by the regular posters over there.
The British media, esp. Sky sports, are so convinced of the ideological principle that the PL is the best league in the world that they are not concerned to protect its quality by discouraging transfers of its best players away. I think also that Fabregas is not appreciated by the English public quite as much as his play deserves because he is a foreign player.
July 29th, 2010 at 2:06 pm
@Limestonegunner, Alan Davies and the Up for Grabs guys are comedians who I wrote a letter to. I asked them to make fun of me. I didn’t write Yogi anything.
Either way, I don’t care, if you don’t have a thick skin as a blogger you won’t last a month.
As for Cesc, just look at the way the English media fawn over Mr. Overrated: Joe Cole. If Cesc was even remotely English he would be hailed as the best English player ever.
I think I saw Lampard make a good pass once and the Torygraph had his boots bronzed.
July 29th, 2010 at 2:15 pm
Fair enough, LG. It’s not my blog, obviously, so I can’t send anyone away. My comment was just an expression of my frustration with that lot. I’ve been battered over there many a time and I’ve just gotten tired of what’s almost this frightening and fascist view of all things Arsenal.
Fair enough, Tim. You’re entitled to take umbrage as you feel, of course. If it was intended as a comment on your previous blog, I’d say it was pretty tone deaf and unwarranted. But if you aren’t a regular reader or have a different style, it might occasionally be hard to understand someone else’s humour and place it in context. I am not the type to butter up the blogger, but as time goes on I appreciate this as a distinctive and stimulating Arsenal blog, both for your insightful posts and the community of commenters.
ArseChicago, I understand completely. I post there as well on occasion and have had that same experience. I always assume that someone is a genuine Arsenal supporter who comes to an Arsenal blog to share views on the club with others; at base we all love the club and wish it success, so I don’t understand such vehement and abusive policing of ideological purity.
the online gooner have a piece up today that pretty much says exactly what i said yesterday in the comments here about the state the squad is in
http://www.onlinegooner.com/exclusive/index.php?id=1794
i am starting to think the only reason they promise us signings is to sell the season tickets and if that is the case its a bloody disgrace.
there is a valid point in that blog as in you cant buy a keeper a week before the season and expect him and the defense to work well together. even if we sign players in august its ridiculous its got this late.
and thats why i maintain wenger should have been here dealing with this instead of commentating at the world cup
July 30th, 2010 at 6:00 am
@Chief Gooner, call me a whiny bitch if you like cos i am being a whiny bitch really. its my obsession with this club that does it to me.
i just want us to compete for titles, winning isn’t everything. i want us to battle to the end, not fall away in april because of injuries and always saying what might have been if we had signed a decent keeper
if wenger signs 2 players next week you can call me an idiot for doubting him cos i’ll be ecstatic
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/eng_prem/8858634.stm
Just curious – the BBC story implies that there is a cap of 25 players. Full stop. Not just 25 players over 21. Is this true? BBC is usually reliable (at least in my experience).
July 30th, 2010 at 6:05 am
@Brahmabull, it also says
“Clubs can supplement squad with unlimited number of players under the age of 21″
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Arsenal Offside, Tim. Tim said: New post in which I explain the "homegrown" rule so that even journalists can understand it @ http://www.7amkickoff.com http://bit.ly/bO6bzo [...]