Greg Dyke declares war on Premier League

Football Association chairman Greg Dyke has declared war on the Premier League with his proposal for drastic changes to the home grown player rule.   The Premier League relies on searching the world for the best mature talent and enticing players with high wages, even if sometimes expensive mistakes are made.

While saying that he would prefer to proceed by consensus, Dyke has made it clear that he will be prepared to force the changes through.  He has said that he could get Uefa  to change the rules or the Football Association could change the rules.

Football Association chairman Greg Dyke has declared war on the Premier League with his proposal for drastic changes to the home grown player rule.   The Premier League relies on searching the world for the best mature talent and enticing players with high wages, even if sometimes expensive mistakes are made.

While saying that he would prefer to proceed by consensus, Dyke has made it clear that he will be prepared to force the changes through.  He has said that he could get Uefa  to change the rules or the Football Association could change the rules.

Dyke said, ‘my fear for the future of English football is that the Premier League ends up being owned by foreigners, managed by foreigners and played by foreigners’.    The present proportion of English players in the Premier League is 32 per cent.

At present, Premier League clubs are allowed to submit a 25-man list that must include a minimum of eight home-grown players.   They are defined as those who have spent at least three years with an English or Welsh club between the ages of 15 and 21.

The current rules certainly produce some anomalies as teenage imports such as Cesc Fabregas and Adrian Januzag are classified as home grown.  Manchester City are able to field an overwhelming majority of overseas players.   These include Belgium defender Dedryck Boyata and France left back Gael Clichy.

Dyke wants to reduce the qualifying period to between 15 and 18, but also to reduce the number of permitted non-home-grown players per club from 17 to 13 by the start of the 2019-20 season.   The detailed proposals and the justification for them can be found here.