OMNISPORT 

Greg Dyke, the chairman of the Football Association, has outlined proposals for changing the rules concerning home-grown players in English football.

The suggestions are part of the England Commission, set up in 2013 to help improve the flow of young English talent coming through at the game's top level. Work permit regulations will also be more stringent. 

Dyke has made the following recommendations:

- "Home-grown" players to be defined as someone who has been registered with any club affiliated to the FA for three years prior to their 18th birthday, rather than their 21st, as is currently the case.

- A reduction in the maximum number of non-home-grown players in a 25-man first-team squad from 17 to 13, phased over four years from 2016.

- A requirement that at least two home-grown players are "club-trained", meaning they have been registered to their current club for three years prior to their 18th birthday.

The England Commission has also identified four key areas that are preventing young English talent breaking through. They are:

- A lack of quality coaching.

- An absence of quality facilities at grassroots level.

- A lack of opportunities for home-grown players to play competitive first-team football between the ages of 18 and 21.

- The regulation of the English players market's effectiveness in preserving the desired balance of British, EU and non-EU players.

"Many of the home grown players being developed at these academies are not breaking through to play regular first-team football," Dyke said.

"The Premier League has already recognised the problem and introduced home-grown player quotas.

"But since those rules were introduced in 2010, the average number of home grown players in a Premier League squad has stayed largely the same and has actually decreased significantly at the 12 clubs who have been ever present in the league during that period.

"These proposals will ensure that the letter of the law around home grown players matches the spirit in which they were first conceived. We want the whole of the English game to support these proposals."