Last September, I wrote an overly lengthy post which stumbled its way through the then recently ratified rules introducing quotas on numbers of “home grown” players and squad size limits on Premiership teams from 2010/11. The conclusion I eventually came to was that it would not adversely affect Aston Villa in any way. It just took a while to get there.

As we head ever closer toward the start of the 2010/11 season, with much speculation about the likes of Man City suffering as a result of these rule changes, I thought it worth a quick analysis of our squad against the new rules.

The first thing to understand is the definition of “home grown”:-

Premier League
A home grown player is defined as one who, irrespective of his nationality or age, has been registered with any club affiliated to the Football Association or the Welsh Football Association for a period, continuous or not, of three entire seasons or 36 months prior to his 21st birthday (or the end of the season during which he turns 21).

Players Aged Under 21

Each club can use as many players as they like who are under the age of 21 on January 1st 2010, regardless of nationality.

25 Man Squad

Clubs are restricted to registering a maximum of 25 players over the age of 21 on January 1st 2010 for use in the Premier League and must submit a squad list on the day after each of the two transfer windows have closed.

Within that 25 man list:-

• a maximum of 17 players not home grown.
• a minimum of 8 home grown players.

Note: The minimum of home grown players can be regarded as a “soft minimum”, meaning it is not obligatory. For instance, it’s fine if teams are only able to list 6 home grown players, but they can not name more than 17 players who are not home grown, so they would only be able to register 23 players in that case. Remember, there is no restriction on the number of players under 21.

If teams do not have 25 players, they are able to add free agents outside of the transfer windows. However, if they do have 25 eligible contracted players, they must be named.

Current Aston Villa Squad

This is the current first team squad with reserves and some of the more senior academy players included for analysis purposes:-

Under 21 (Unlimited)

Marc Albrighton, Nathan Delfouneso, Fabian Delph, Andreas Weimann, Elliot Parish, Shane Lowry, Barry Bannan, Ciaran Clark, Nathan Baker, Chris Herd, James Collins, Harry Forrester. 12 Players

Over 21, Not Home Grown (Maximum of 17 Players)

Brad Friedel, John Carew, Moustapha Salifou, Stiliyan Petrov, Brad Guzan, Habib Beye, Carlos Cuéllar. 7 Players

Over 21, Home Grown (Minimum of 8 Players)

Luke Young, Steve Sidwell, Richard Dunne, Stewart Downing, Ashley Young, James Milner, Gabriel Agbonlahor, Curtis Davies, Emile Heskey, Nigel Reo-Coker, Nicky Shorey, Stephen Warnock, Isaiah Osbourne, James Collins, Eric Lichaj*, Jonathan Hogg. 16 Players

* I believe that Eric Lichaj will meet the home grown requirements, but it’s clearly not a problem if he does not..

Conclusion, The 6+5 Rule And Europe

Given MON’s frequently berated policy of favouring young British players, it’s hardly surprising that we have absolutely nothing to be concerned about with the new rules. With only 21 players categorized in the over 21 age group, we have room to add more without anyone leaving, but with the likes of Luke Young, Steve Sidwell and James Milner all looking likely to be heading for the exit, we’ve plenty of wiggle room.

Also, just in case you missed it, FIFA quietly announced during the World Cup that they would be dropping their pursuit of the 6+5 rule since it was clear that it would be impossible to get past the EU’s freedom of movement for workers laws.

Personally, I was delighted to hear that as I felt it was going a little too far. Encouraging youth development through reasonable quotas within a squad context are one thing, determining starting elevens based on nationality was something else altogether.

So, these rules are probably about as tough as we can expect for the foreseeable future then, but as I mentioned last time, they’re practically identical to the squad requirements for the Champions and Europa Leagues in any case. In fact, those rules, if anything, are slightly tougher since UEFA requires that at least 4 of the 8 home grown players submitted in the 25 man squads for those competitions to have come through the club’s own academy.

I haven’t looked at City’s squad in this detail, but if they are going to fall foul of rules that have existed for European competition for some time, they certainly haven’t thought things through very well.