Winston BiscuitSanguine I hadn't previously understood the small absurdity in UEFA's 'homegrown' rule for European competition squads. Clubs must choose eight such 'homegrown' players, which is defined as a player having played or been trained by a club in the same national association for three years from the age of 15. What this means is that young players don't count as 'homegrown'.
Practical example - Chiesa missed out on Liverpool's CL squad, Rio Ngumoha taking the final place. Ngumoha was born in Newham, but isn't 'homegrown' because he simply isn't old enough to have played for three years in England. Whereas a 19 year old Brazilian who moved to England at 16 would count as 'homegrown'.
Ngumoha isn't homegrown as he has only been at Liverpool for 12 months. 16 year olds only need 2 years 'without interruption' to be classed as homegrown.
apparently when you submit your 25 man squad to UEFA you also get to submit a B List which contains anyone young enough not to be able to meet the homegrown rule because of age, and so those players just need 2 years uninterrupted at that club. That B List is limitless, so if you have a young talent good enough to make it onto your B List who will get game time you are effectively having more than 25 players in your European squad
And Liverpool have 2 names on their B list - Jayden Danns and Trey Nyoni.
It really is a ludicrous rule though, no doubt created solely to accommodate (and to some extent help encourage) big sides to vacuum up all the young talented youngsters from the UK & Europe's "diddier" clubs as soon as possible
