Celtic’s Champions League campaign is not far away from kicking off. On Tuesday evening, the Bhoys will line up at de Kuip to take on Feyenoord on matchday one.
Earlier in the week, the Hoops’ squad for their group stage campaign was revealed. Some notable absentees included Alexandro Bernabei, Maik Nawrocki, and Marco Tilio, although the homegrown rule didn’t help with this lack of inclusions.
Each season when teams name their 25-man Champions League squads, they must include eight homegrown players who have been ‘locally trained’ by the club, or a club from the same country, for three years between the ages of 15 and 21. This is a rule Brendan Rodgers has recently spoken about.
It clearly came into play when the Irishman picked 25 Bhoys for Europe’s premier club competition. He said (Glasgow Times): “My focus will always personally be on the homegrown players. But if it means that you can’t pick what would be your strongest squad because of it then yeah, that can be a deterrent [to signing players]. I think it’s great that you have the players from your affiliated training who are able to be there. But at the same time, they have to be good enough as well.”
The likes of Mikey Johnston and James Forrest were included in Celtic’s Champions League squad, likely to only ensure the quota of homegrown players was met. If the rule didn’t exist, we could have perhaps seen more ample players such as Marco Tilio or Maik Nawrocki in the squad.
Unfortunately, though, Rodgers cannot alter the rule, which is sometimes like solving a puzzle. It can be frustrating at times but it does look to ensure homegrown talent is nurtured by clubs across Europe.
Nevertheless, it is inevitable countries that have several times the populations of Scotland such as Spain and France will produce better players yet clubs from there still need to include the same number of homegrown players. Some have argued this is a flaw of the regulation, although it doesn’t look like it’ll change any time soon.
How long we have come since the Lisbon Lions conquered all before them. My opinion is each team should have 10 home-grown and I mean from their country in their squads. And I mean Liverpool having 10 English players, not 10 including Welsh and Scots. This would stop so much poaching, but not all, and encourage talent spotters and development which I feel helps the international side. Would Bernabei make it into any of Jock’s sides? I think not. COYBIG!
Nothing wrong with the rule. Its up to Celtic to produce quality youngsters through their academy. Club needs to address why this simply isn’t happening.
The results for the B team in the Lowland League are an embarrassment confirming the talent just doesn’t exist
Thanks, Terry, for providing the real issue i.e., homegrown players. Whomever has the responsibility of selecting young players at Celtic do not have the experience or nous in the selection of young talent. This is exacerbated by the training methods used for development of young players. I would like to add here a quote from Guardiola on his now assistant Juan Lillo. He stated (I’m paraphrasing) that Juan ‘sees things in football that others are not capable of seeing’. This also applies to the selection of players. When you view the Celtic coaching and technical staff, there is only one individual I would consider in Lillo’s class and that would be Harry Kewell. Football statistics, data, training methodology, physiology etc. are all important however there is an intuitive function that cannot be dismissed.
The rule doesn’t go far enough. It is completely reasonable to say that out of 11 players in a starting line up, 6 of them (just over half), should be from the country they are supposed to be representing. When Celtic played Inter Milan in the 1967 European Champions Cup Final in 1967, all Celtic’s players were Scottish, and all Inter’s players were Italian. Yet in 2010, when Inter won the European Champions League Final, not a single Italian started the match, and even their manager was Portuguese. They brought on an Italian sub, 2 minutes into overtime at the end of the match, and he was the only Italian who represented Inter that night. uefa’s rules are a farce. Last season, Manchester City supposedly representing England, started with just 2 Englishmen, in the Champions League Cup Final against Inter. There should be 6 players from the country of origin, in each team throughout the match.