FA 'homegrown talent' plan backed by England bosses

The Football Association's plans to boost the number of homegrown players in the Premier League has received the backing of five former England managers.

Last month the FA's chairman, Greg Dyke, warned that the League was in danger of "having nothing to do with English people". At the same time he outlined plans to increase the minimum number of homegrown players in club squads from eight to 12, while also changing the rules of what makes a "homegrown" player so that in future a player must have trained in England for three years before the age of 18, rather than the current age of 21.

To no one's great surprise the proposals encountered immediate opposition from the Premier League with reports that "a majority of clubs are unlikely to back the plan".

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But according to the Daily Telegraph five former England managers sent a letter to Dyke on Wednesday in which they endorsed his plan, and pointed out that 20 years ago the Premier League was composed of 70 per cent of English players, a figure that has fallen to 32 per cent in 2014-15.

The five – Glenn Hoddle, Kevin Keegan, Sven-Goran Eriksson, Graham Taylor and Steve McClaren – all signed the letter that echoed Dyke's warning about the future health of English football if changes are not made. "Failure to do so risks England falling further behind the leading football nations and will only make it harder to end the long wait to win the World Cup," stated the letter.

The five men managed England between 1990 and 2007 for all but three years (Terry Venables, who was in charge of the Three Lions between 1994 and 1996 didn't put his name to the letter), an era that has witnessed a steady decline in the fortunes of the national team. In 1990 England were within a penalty shootout of reaching the World Cup final, and in 2007 they failed to qualify for the next year's European Championships. That downward trend shows no sign of being reversed, with England failing to win a game in the group stage of last summer's World Cup.

The letter states: "There are many reasons why England has failed to win any major honours since 1966 and each of us bears a portion of that responsibility. However, as the England Commission's evidence has demonstrated, the pool of English talent playing at the very top level is shrinking and it's an undeniable fact that this is a clear disadvantage for any England manager."

Citing the "extraordinary pressure" on Premier League clubs to win trophies and qualify for Europe, the letter claims that his led to an irresistible temptation "to buy an established player from overseas rather than take a chance on a young home-grown prospect from the academy".

The managers have clearly been encouraged by the emergence in recent seasons of several young stars, including Liverpool's Raheem Sterling, Ross Barkley of Everton and Harry Kane of England, who scored on his international debut last week. "It is clear we can still produce top young talent," said the five," [but] the one thing they are not being offered is the most important of all: opportunity."

The letter ended by offering its support to the FA's plans and urging "everyone in the English game to get behind them as quickly as possible".