Home Grown Players (HGP) Quota – Summer 2021 Transfer Window

Each year I write about the 25-man squad and the implications of the home grown players rule and how it will impact on Spurs’ transfer strategy. The home grown player numbers could impact on how many signings Fabio Paratici can make, the nature of those signings and/or the size of our squad for the rest of the season.

The Premier League ‘Home Grown Players (HGP)’ Rule

The misconception about the requirement itself is that clubs must name eight home grown players in their squads. We could name fewer than eight HGPs, but would need to also name fewer than 25 players in our squad — for example, if we only have seven HGPs, we can name a 24-man squad, 6/23, 5/22, etc. 

Remember, an HGP is defined as one whom, irrespective of nationality or age, has been registered with any club affiliated to The Football Association or the Football Association of Wales for a period, continuous or not, of three entire seasons, or 36 months, before his 21st birthday (or the end of the season during which he turns 21). Source: Premier League.

As ever, we will not need to name players who are under 21 on our squad list, so could augment our squad with youngsters. This would mean that we could manage with, say, a 22-man squad with just five HGPs, but would need plenty of under 21 players who are ready to play. For the 2021/22 campaign, players considered ‘under 21’ will have been born on or after 1st January 2000. This means that for the current season we still have a number of ‘freebies’ who are fairly well-known names, the likes of: TJ Eyoma, Ryan Sessegnon, Oliver Skipp, Jubril Okedina, Jack Clarke, Harvey White, Troy Parrott, Dennis Cirkin, Nile John, Dane Scarlett and Alfie Devine. Some of these players will ultimately be sent out on loan, of course.

From this season, Brandon Austin, Japhet Tanganga and Tobi Omole would need to be named on our squad list should we wish to use them as they were all born before 1st January 2000. The fact that they are considered home grown is useful, though I would suspect that only Tanganga will be named in the initial squad list.

The Europa League ‘Home Grown Players (HGP)’ Rule

The Europa Conference League rules are a little different to the Premier League rules — have a look at article 45 (‘Player Lists’) of the regulations. UEFA don’t just want clubs to have players trained elsewhere in the FA structure; they have additional requirements for club-trained players. They want to encourage clubs to bring through their own young players.

If we want to name a ‘full’ (25-man) squad in the Europa League, we would need at least four ‘association-trained’ players (we have lots) and four ‘club-trained’ players (we currently have: Harry Kane, Harry Winks, Cameron Carter-Vickers, Alfie Whiteman, Brandon Austin, Japhet Tanganga). Austin is on-loan at Orlando City until December.

Players under 21 can be included on List B so long as they have been ‘eligible to play for the club concerned for any uninterrupted period of two years since his 15th birthday by the time he is registered with UEFA, or a total of three consecutive years with a maximum of one loan period to a club from the same association for a period not longer than one year.’ This excludes Sessegnon and Clarke due to their loans, and Devine is also not eligible for List B as he only joined us last year. All three would need to be included on List A should we wish to use them.

Summary

We currently have 26 players who would need to be named on the Premier League squad list if we wanted to play them. Many of these players are expected to leave and so it’s difficult to draw too many conclusions about whether HGP will be an issue for us at this point; but probably not.

As ever, it’s a slightly more delicate situation in the UEFA competition due to the relatively low number of club-trained players. Depending on how the summer transfer activity goes, we may end up having to select a slightly smaller squad than the maximum allowed. This is unlikely to cause an issue, though, as it is expected that a lot of young players (who will be on List B) will be used in the Conference League in order to give them experience.

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