I READ with interest the Football League’s decision to overwhelmingly vote in favour of implementing new quotas on home-grown players from the start of next season.
At least four players in every 16-man match-day squad will have to have been registered domestically for at least three years before their 21st birthday.
Football League chairman Lord Mawhinney heralded the change.
“This is a very significant day,” he remarked. “Players coming through will have a greater chance to show their talent."
Only one of the 67 clubs represented did not back the initiative.
As far as I am concerned, the anonymous club was a loan voice talking sense in a sea of stupidity.
The idea is a nonsense - a complete farce which is nothing more than a PR stunt.
Firstly, the rules will only apply in the Championship and below, not the Premier League. How many clubs, therefore, will actually have to change the squads they are already fielding?
When Ipswich beat Derby away, Jim Magilton’s squad featured four players who fit the home-grown bill - Darren Ambrose, Richard Wright, Tommy Miller and Shane Supple.
Even if the system was introduced in the Premiership, the likes of Arsenal - a club perpetually criticised for ignoring British talent - would be able to include the likes of Cesc Fabregas and Nicklas Bendtner in their quota because both were shipped into London as youngsters.
There are also real concerns over the breaching of EU legislation. After all, the EU constitution permits the freedom of movement among its members.
But all of the above is, in my view, immaterial.
My biggest gripe with the Football League’s initiative is that I fundamentally disagree with the central principal which underpins it - that forcing Championship, League One and League Two clubs to pick youth players will, somehow, be to the benefit of the English national team.
Firstly, there is absolutely no evidence to suggest this is the case. John Terry, Ashley Cole, David Beckham and Ryan Giggs all managed to break into the first teams of three of the country’s top clubs. Why, therefore, do we think that dictating to managers that they must pick sub-standard teenagers will suddenly turn them into superstars?
The fact is that if you are English and you are good enough, you will get your chance. Perhaps that chance will come further down the pyramid - look at Theo Walcott, for example, who started in the second tier with Southampton before Arsenal came calling. Or perhaps Ashley Young, who wowed at Watford prior to a big money switch to Aston Villa.
Secondly, why do the football authorities think clubs have a responsibility to produce great English players?
Thirdly, I couldn’t give a damn about the national team. Watching England, more often than not, is a chore I could do without. Give me the blood and thunder of English league football any day.
Finally, I want to see the best players plying their trade in England. I don’t care where they come from - if they are good enough to get 50,000 people transfixed, sitting on the edge of their seats, let’s make sure they earn their living in these shores.
Imagine, the next time you tune into Match of the Day, that the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Robinho and Fernando Torres have been replaced with Rob Hulse, Chris Iwelumo and Neil Mellor. It would be like dumping Cameron Diaz and replacing her with Jo Brand.
And let’s not forget how Sir Bobby Robson’s Ipswich led the way in attracting the cream of foreign talent when Portman Road welcomed with open arms Arnold Muhren and Frans Thijssen.
Everyone loves to see home-grown talent flourish in the first team - but I can’t help thinking that Mawhinney’s patriotic crusade is a complete waste of time and effort.
As Grimsby Town’s outspoken boss Mike Newell succinctly summarised: “I take it with a pinch of salt. It won't have a massive impact in the lower divisions and I think it's probably another publicity stunt by the Football League.”