When is a foreign player not a foreign player? The home grown player quota debate continues...

The debate surrounding whether the influx of foreign players into the Premier League constitutes a threat to our national game has been rumbling on for many years. Amidst various opinions from players, managers and pundits under the combined stewardship of Sepp Blatter (President of FIFA) and Michel Platini (President of UEFA), footballs governing bodies have either implemented or propose to introduce further reforms. It remains to be seen whether EU law is likely to prevent both organisations reaching their ultimate goals.

The current UEFA "locally trained players" rule

Many football fans may be unaware that UEFA has already introduced measures designed to increase the participation of locally trained players in European competition. Clubs participating in the Champions League, the UEFA Cup, the UEFA Super Cup and the Intertoto Cup have been subject to restrictions on their squads for these competitions for the last few years. These UEFA regulations have also been adopted by certain national football associations including Germany, Italy, Portugal and Russia.

At present, UEFA regulations state that the 25 man squad submitted by a club participating in one of UEFA’s European competitions must include 6 "locally-trained players" (to be increased to 8 from 2008/9). Now you would be forgiven for thinking at this point that this restriction means that UEFA have limited the number of foreign players who can be in a clubs European competition match squad; but that is not the case. A "locallytrained player" can be either
"club-trained" or "association-trained". There is little difference between these two terms, both essentially mean that that player must have been registered with the club (or with another club affiliated to the same national association) for three full seasons, or 36 months, between the age of 15 and 21. This applies irrespective of nationality meaning that players such as Cesc Fabregas, Arsenal's Spanish midfield maestro, counts towards Arsenal’s quota of "locally-trained players" even though he's about as English as paella! Failure to name 6 "locally-trained players" in the squad leads to a reduction in the size of that squad i.e. if a club entering the Champions League for the 2007/8 season fails to name any such club or association trained players, they would only be permitted a squad of 19 rather than 25.

The existence of these rules goes some way towards explaining the mad rush in recent years from the top clubs to snap up European talent at such a young age. For example, Liverpool’s FA Youth Cup winning squads of 2006 & 2007 contained young players from Spain, Denmark, Sweden and Norway. Should any of these players prove their worth and end up in the first team in the next couple of years, like Fabregas before them they will be designated "locally-trained players" and will satisfy the UEFA requirements.

There however remain concerns that these regulations may be illegal under EU law as they could lead to indirect discrimination between EU citizens on grounds of nationality. The European Commission itself commented in its White Paper on Sport (July 2007) that,

"rules requiring that teams include a certain quota of locally trained players could be accepted as being compatible with the Treaty provisions on free movement of persons if they do not lead to any direct discrimination based on nationality".

This rule has not yet been tested in any European member state country, but it is not difficult to envisage a player who feels he was left out of a Champions League squad due to his status as a non "locally-trained player" making a persuasive case for indirect discrimination. It is also arguable that these rules do more to harm the national leagues than they do to help them, with ever greater importation of young foreign players stifling the youth team opportunities of, for example, English youngsters.

The future of foreign player quotas

In turning to FIFA’s proposals for reducing in the number of foreign players in national leagues, Sepp Blatter advocates introducing a true quota for foreign players, where every team must consist of at least 6 home grown players. It is important to highlight here that a "home grown" player is not necessarily the same thing as a “locally-trained player". A home grown player is a national of the league in which the club he plays for is registered (i.e. Gerrard being an Englishman playing for Liverpool would be a home grown player but Fabregas would not be). Blatter plans to raise the issue at the annual FIFA Congress in Sydney in May.

The likelihood that there will be a pure foreign player quota system in the Premier League at any point in the foreseeable future remains slim. FIFA would also need to overcome in particular the strong objections of the Premier League. Richard Scudamore has labelled Sepp Blatter’s plans, "jingoistic, nationalistic" and "almost racist".

In the context of the registration of players in the Champions League for the 2007/8 season it was pointed out there were more Scottish players registered to play for the two Scottish clubs that qualified (Rangers and Celtic) than there were English players registered for four Premier League clubs (Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United). This illustrates that the English top clubs at the very least would probably oppose such restrictions which limit their ability to buy the worlds best players. That however has not stopped Reading manager Steve Coppell calling for some limit in order to increase the pool of talent available to future English managers.

Conclusion

Clubs will not want their ability to purchase the best international players restricted. Leagues’ may not want restrictions which lessen the attractiveness of the league product for marketing and television broadcasting sales if only second rate national players (under FIFA’s system) can be used because each clubs 'foreign' quota has been reached. Although Fernando Torres may be classed as an honorary scouser already, he would be deemed to be a non-home-grown player under the FIFA proposals. Luckily, as you prepare for the next round of Football Aid matches this summer, you are however unlikely to be asked where you have trained in the last three years!

For further information, please feel free to contact Daniel Geey.