Aston Villa prepared for arrival of FIFA quota rules

Mar 28 2009 by Bill Howell, Birmingham Mail

BRYAN Jones is proud to admit that Villa would comfortably pass any directives aimed at clubs naming academy-groomed players in their squads.

Both UEFA and FIFA are planning quotas and the Premier League is believed to be in agreement.

Clubs in the Champions League and Uefa Cup are already required to have eight home-grown players of any nationality in their 25-man match-day squad, so long as they have spent three years at the club when under the age of 21.

Villa’s squad in any week is likely to contain half-a-dozen home-raised players with Gareth Barry and Gabby Agbonlahor first-team regulars and Craig Gardner and Nathan Delfouneso in the first-team squad week-in, week-out.

Then the likes of Ciaran Clark, Shane Lowry, Marc Albrighton, Chris Herd, Eric Lichaj and Nathan Baker have made great strides on the fringes, Stephen O’Halloran is recovering from injury, while Isiah Osbourne, Sam Williams and Barry Bannan are out on loan and all on the fringes.

“I haven’t been able to study the proposals yet but it would hinge on whether it means in a squad of 18 or in a squad of 40, or whether it means in a training squad or a squad for a Saturday”, Academy director Jones said.

“For many clubs, it will be a difficult criterion for them to fulfil but if you look at Villa and our existing squad, we would fulfil it comfortably.”