Lord Mawhinney is keen for his 'Home Grown Players' rule to go through
Football League clubs are to hold an extraordinary general meeting in December to discuss plans to implement a 'Home Grown Players' rule in 2009.
The rule would require four players in a 16-man matchday squad to have been registered domestically for at least three years before their 21st birthday.
Football League chairman Lord Mawhinney said, "It is time we made a clear and unequivocal statement of intent."
An overall majority, plus a majority of Championship clubs, must pass the plan.
A player would be deemed "home grown" if he is registered for three entire seasons (or 36 months) prior to turning 21 with a club affiliated to the Football Association or the Football Association of Wales.
The proposal, which is being put forward by the Football League's board of directors and would take effect for the 2009/10 season, is in line with the approach favoured by Uefa rather than the 'six plus five' approach being proposed by world governing body Fifa.
The 'six plus five' proposal stipulates that six of a team's starting XI should be eligible to play for the national team of the country of the club - but the League board has concerns over the legality of the latter in European law.
This means that players will be considered as 'home grown' regardless of their nationality.
The meeting will take place at Derby County's Pride Park on 18 December, and Mawhinney added: "The aim is to establish this principle by setting a threshold that our clubs can accommodate and then to consider raising that level over time.
"It is important we demonstrate that, as a body of clubs, our commitment to youth development is total.
"Not only are we pulling out all the stops to develop these young players in the first place, we are also ensuring that they have the opportunity to show their talent in the first team.
"Fourteen of the 23-man England squad that beat Germany in Berlin, last week, were developed by youth development programmes at Football League clubs. Looking ahead, we want to increase that proportion even further."
According to the Football League, there are 8,500 young footballers aged between eight and 18 on the books of their 72 clubs, with 22 academies and 46 centres of excellence in operation.
E-mail this to a friend 
Printable version 
Bookmark with:
What are these?