[Lickszz]

There is already talk about challenging this new ruling legally. From what standpoint i have no idea.

The new Uefa ruling states that clubs must have four homegrown players in their squad by 2006 to enter European competitions.

I think this is quite a turnaround from the days that teams could only field four foreigners and that included Welsh and Scottish and Irish players.

If the rule still stands that these home nations are classed individually then perhaps it might not cause too many problems as clubs will be able to use up their allotted numbers with players from these.

Some people will be of the opinion that that teams should be able to pick who they want etc.

I wonder if the current scenario at Chelsea has anything to do with this ruling. Perhaps the powers that be are a little frightened and that is why they are trying to force clubs to use home grown talent.

It has to be said that the Champions league is becoming a tad predictable and there is a wide gulf emerging, perhaps handicapping the top teams may open the competition up a bit more and make it more interesting.

So, is this a step forward or a step back?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/foot...pe/4234761.stm

[Yodameister]

Originally posted by Lickszz
There is already talk about challenging this new ruling legally. From what standpoint i have no idea.

The new Uefa ruling states that clubs must have four homegrown players in their squad by 2006 to enter European competitions.

I think this is quite a turnaround from the days that teams could only field four foreigners and that included Welsh and Scottish and Irish players.

If the rule still stands that these home nations are classed individually then perhaps it might not cause too many problems as clubs will be able to use up their allotted numbers with players from these.

Some people will be of the opinion that that teams should be able to pick who they want etc.

I wonder if the current scenario at Chelsea has anything to do with this ruling. Perhaps the powers that be are a little frightened and that is why they are trying to force clubs to use home grown talent.

It has to be said that the Champions league is becoming a tad predictable and there is a wide gulf emerging, perhaps handicapping the top teams may open the competition up a bit more and make it more interesting.

So, is this a step forward or a step back?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/foot...pe/4234761.stm

"Home Grown" in this context means that they came up through your clubs academy system I think, doesn't have anything to do with nationalities (as that would contravene EU law)

In the long run I don't think that this will stop Europe being dominated by the same teams, and I'm not really sure if that is the aim or not.

To achieve a more level playing field we need wholesale changes to the way football is organised, and I think that we are really too far gone to ever reign in the commercialisation which makes the rich richer and the poor poorer.

IT is going more and more down the road of "The free market can't ever be wrong". This rule of thumb is barely feasible in day to day life, in sport it is potentially very damaging.

[ANGELUS]

I think its brilliant!

Because now chelsea cant just go out and buy all the best players in the world- they need to have a squad of 25 including a couple of academy players.

Evens the playing field now I think.

[craigb]

I think it's a possitive thing, and I'm suprised the FA have said they're not going to bring in a matching/similar ruling in the English game.

I think it would only help the England team as the would be a much bigger importance put on bringing real talent through your youth system.

Also, it would prevent teams like Chelsea and Man Utd from buying their way to the title as they do now.

The biggest advantage I can see would be that it would hopfeully give a bit of an extra helping hand to teams coming up from the Championship (who tend to have much more homegrown talent than your established Premiership sides), and that can only be a good thing given the huge gap between the two divisions these days.

I can see downsides though... it could push player wages even higher as clubs become more and more desperate to hang onto every talented youngster they get.

Also, if there's a lack of young talent then the game in general would undoubtably suffer as clubs would be forced to use less talented players who are homegrown rather than bringing in someone on a transfer.