England: the FA proposes measures to increase number of English players in Premier League

The FA (Football Association) presented a set of measures to increase the number of English players in the Premier League on 08/05/2014. Greg Dyke, FA president, wants the number of English players to go from 32% to 45% by 2022. In 2013-14, 66 Englishmen play regularly in the Premier League. To achieve the objective, that number should rise to 90 in eight years.

In order to do this, FA proposed limiting the number of work visas granted to non-EU players: each Premier League club would be entitled to a maximum of two players who are not citizens of a Member State of the European Union. And the report seeks to lower-division clubs from using non-EU players, even in the form of loans.

FA also wants to create a League Three (5^th division) composed of ten reserve teams from the big clubs in the Premier League and as well as 10 clubs playing in Conference (5^th current division). Nineteen out of the 25 B team players would be under 21 years old, and 20 of them would be from the EU.

Manchester City, Manchester United, Liverpool, Everton and Stoke City are interested in creating this…