by Nia Griffiths

The Premier League are predicted to turn down Greg Dyke’s proposal to bring the quota of homegrown players up.

The FA Chairman wanted to increased the quote from eight to 12 from next year, meaning several English teams have been scrabbling about trying to add homegrown talent to their squad.

However, the Premier League looks set to reject the suggestion, describing the league as ‘global‘ and implying that, by making it an obligation to have even more homegrown talent in the teams, it’ll put off superstars from other countries coming over.

“We absolutely agree (with the FA) that getting more and better home grown players is the number one objective in youth development systems. But we do disagree on some of the tactics,” the Premier League executive chairman, Richard Scudamore, said.

“I represent the 20 clubs, I don’t see any mood to drastically alter any quotas or restrictions that would effectively end up with a protected system for home grown players.

“If there are some realistic things that can be done we’ll embrace them but fundamentally our starting point is our clubs aren’t really up for hugely restrictive quotas.”

He continued, “It’s a global league, the clubs want to attract the world’s best talent, the only route to improving homegrown players is through a qualitative route, through better facilities, better coaching, better access time, as opposed to artificially.”

This is an excellent point. As important as it is to our league to have a moderate amount of homegrown players, we have to also remember what makes our league so special. The strength and unpredictability is attractive to players from other leagues and over the years we’ve had a plethora of talent from other countries playing on our doorsteps. By stamping that down and putting these type of harsh restrictions in place, we, in turn, restrict the league itself, in my opinion.