Southampton understood to have queried change alreadyGreg Dyke’s drive to increase the quota for the number of homegrown players in each top-flight squad has run into opposition from the Premier League, putting a serious question mark over its viability.The Football Association chairman, determined to improve first-team opportunities for young English players, this week proposed increasing the number of homegrown players in each squad from eight to 12. He also wants to lower the qualifying age by which homegrown players must have trained in England by three years, from 21 to 18.
However, following a Premier League meeting at which Dyke was challenged by one club, understood to be Southampton, over whether he felt he could force through the changes without their consent, it has emerged a majority of clubs are unlikely to back the plan.
Appearing alongside Dyke at a school in Brixton, south London, to promote a commitment from both bodies and the government to fund all-weather grassroots facilities, the Premier League chief executive, Richard Scudamore, said the FA chairman had promised not to implement it against their wishes. “I know he has done lots of media this week but we haven’t actually seen the consultation document, we haven’t seen the process and when that arrives on our desk in the next weeks we will consult properly on it,” said Scudamore.
“When Greg was asked a direct question by a club yesterday, whether this could be imposed on them if they didn’t want to do it, he was quite clear they couldn’t. We’ll enter the consultation phase as we do on all these things. We will consult and get back to it in due course.”
Dyke is committed to consulting with the Premier League clubs and is open to negotiation. However, launching the plan on Monday he said that while it was not a road he wanted to go down, the FA could change its rules. Or Uefa, whose president, Michel Platini, backed Dyke’s plan this week, could increase its own quota from eight players to 12 when its rules are updated in 2018.
“We could persuade Uefa, or the FA could change the rules. It’s not an option I’d like to go down, but the FA could change the rules,” said Dyke. Asked again at the Uefa Congress in Vienna, Dyke confirmed it had examined options but did not want to go down a confrontational route. “We are open to discussions on all of it. This is a set of ideas which we think will work,” he said.
The FA hopes to phase in the new rules by increasing the number of homegrown players in each 25-man squad by one per season from 2016-17.
FA insiders point to the fact the changes to work-permit regulations that came into force last week to restrict the number of average non-EU players coming into the game were initially opposed by the Premier League but eventually agreed following extensive consultation.
The FA is understood to be convinced it could force through the plan if necessary by refusing to sanction the Premier League rulebook. In practice, however, that is unlikely as it would mean taking on the professional game at FA board, council and shareholder level.
Despite the fact 11 Premier League squads would qualify under the new rules already, the bigger clubs are believed to oppose increasing the quotas. Instead, they would prefer to give the £340m investment in upgrading academies under the Elite Player Performance Plan time to work. Opponents of the plan also point out that there could be theoretical legal difficulties, not least with the European Commission.
After announcing it would distribute at least £1bn of its next TV deal, likely to top £8bn once overseas rights are factored in, outside the top flight, Scudamore said the Premier League is committed to grassroots investment. But he added it was too early to say whether any of that money, most of which will go to relegated clubs in parachute payments, would fill a £50m funding gap in the FA’s scheme to spend £230m building 150 3G artificial-pitch hubs around the country. “Our timing to promise the precise figure is not going to be until the autumn. When the time comes I’m confident facilities will be part of that. We’ve committed to increased funding of facilities until 2019,” said Scudamore.
The government has promised an extra £50m over five years to fund the hubs idea but the detail of how the Premier League’s additional contribution – on top of its existing £12m a year investment in the Football Foundation – will be administered, remains unclear. “Don’t get hung up about how. Do we want to do it? Yes we do. Is it going to happen? Yes it will,” said Scudamore.
The FA’s plan, which will be piloted in Sheffield, is being funded by £50m investment from government, £50m from the FA to be funded by internal cuts and a predicted £80m from local authorities. Based on the FA’s figures, that leaves £50m over five years.
The sports minister, Helen Grant, insisted all three funding partners are working together to ensure the money is spent in the best way. “We’re working together and all singing from the same song sheet, which is that we want better facilities, more facilities and to help the grassroots,” she said.
By Owen Gibson / Guardian
