"Homegrown" soccer players

[MikeVick7]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/4520644.stm

Does anyone agree with him on this? It's almost like putting a salary cap on soccer teams, which goes against the way the leagues are set-up right?

[DaddyTorgo]

see i actually like the idea. and the Champions League is going to be implementing something similar in the coming years.

[KevinNU7]

This concept stands no chance because the European Union basically ensure that any memeber of the EU can work in any EU country. SO while Chelsea couldn't fill there teams with Brazilians they could just fill it with all Euros if they had to

[Katon]

I'm also somewhat puzzled by the choice of Chelsea as the targets. John Terry, Frank Lampard, and Joe Cole are all starting regularly; Wayne Bridge, Glen Johnson, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Carlton Cole, and Lenny Pidgely are also first-team squad members. Compare that to, say, Arsenal.

Also, on a somewhat broader note, I'm not entirely convinced the nationality quota's the best way to handle this. Sure, Brazilians count as foreigners, which is only fair, but (England and Scotland being separate from a footballing perspective) Scots would also count as foreigners, even though you can get Scots in English youth teams fairly regularly. I prefer what the CL's doing, classifying players by where they came through the academy, if a quota system's going to be put in place

[Easy Mac]

I think they just got annoyed that the Brits were stealing ideas from the other European leagues.

[Icy]

There are lots of tricks to avoid that, for example this is being used by Europeans clubs right now for their foreign players to not to use a foreign spot (that is limited) in their teams:

- Any european player can have a job at any country by European laws.
- 99% of south Americans have a grand gran father that was from Spain, Italy, Portugal etc.
- By Spanish laws (not sure about other countries) if any of your ancestors was Spanish, you can ask for the Spanish nationality after expending some years workin in Spain.

At the end, all the south americans players can become Spanish, that means Europeans and that means they can play in any European country not using a foreign spot.

Examples: Ronaldo is Spanish now, Roberto Carlos is Spanish now, etc etc.

The lawyers will find always a hole in the laws, that is why the bigger clubs expend a lot on the best lawyers.