From homegrown quotas to squad registration limits, we break down the complex UEFA eligibility criteria and examine how the Eagles' current squad fits the rules.
Competing in European football not only offers the opportunity of success but also great exposure, boosting the club’s ability to sign and keep players.
What can become confusing however, is the rules surrounding European competition, governed by UEFA.
In this article, we’ll break down exactly how the rules work and also outline how Palace’s current squad shapes up within the guidelines.
How UEFA’s Squad Rules Work
Each club competing in either the Conference, Europa or Champions League must submit their official squad lists to UEFA prior to competing, comprising two lists, A and B.
Firstly, UEFA separates players based on their ages and also where they were developed. The two terms they use are ‘association-trained’ and ‘club-trained’.
A ‘club-trained’ player is a player who, between the ages of 15-21 has spent, consecutively or not, three entire seasons with the current club.
An ‘association-trained’ player is a player who, between the ages of 15-21, has spent three or more seasons, consecutive or not, at a club in the current club’s same association, so in Palace’s instance, the FA.
List A can have a maximum of 25 players, and eight of these must be ‘locally-trained players’, and no club can have more than four ‘association-trained players’ within these eight players.
Within List A, the club must specify which eight players are ‘locally-trained’, and within that whether they are ‘association-trained’ or ‘club-trained’.
If the List A submission has fewer than eight locally-trained players, the 25-man maximum will decrease. Clubs can make changes to their lists, but if the number of players exceeds 25 then a player currently on the list must be removed, as happened with Christantus Uche ahead of the knockouts in the Conference League last season.
List A must include a minimum of two goalkeepers, with at least three ‘keepers across both List A and List B.
Each club is allowed to register an unlimited number of players to List B. The only requirement for a player to be permitted to List B is that they are born either on or after 1st January 2005, and since their 15th birthday have been eligible to play for the club concerned for an uninterrupted period of two years, or a total of three consecutive years.
How Palace’s current squad fits the criteria
So how does Palace’s current squad fit the UEFA criteria? Let’s go through it now.
List A
Possible Club-trained players
- Tyrick Mitchell
- Remaining spots could be taken by any of the academy players who have been with the club for three years; Rio Cardines, David Ozoh, Jesurun Rak-Sakyi etc.
Possible Association-trained players
- Dean Henderson
- Remi Matthews
- Will Hughes
- Eddie Nketiah
- Adam Wharton
- Brennan Johnson
- Romain Esse
Remaining List A players
- Walter Benítez
- Jaydee Canvot
- Chadi Riad
- Chris Richards
- *Takehiro Tomiyasu*
- Cheick Doucouré
- Borna Sosa
- Óscar Mingueza
- Jefferson Lerma
- Daichi Kamada
- Daniel Muñoz
- Jørgen Strand Larsen
- Yéremy Pino
- Jean-Phillipe Mateta
- Ismaïla Sarr
Effectively, Palace are in a really strong position currently due to their lack of movement in the transfer window. As players are signed, decisions will need to be made, but with a number of the players listed above potentially not playing at the club next season, they may well be irrelevant to this list.
Only Tyrick Mitchell remains as a guaranteed club-trained player that isn’t still an academy player. This could cause some headaches in terms of squad selection. Having senior first team players that can make up the four club-trained slots is a huge advantage.
Palace’s List B would be made up entirely of academy players, the likes of which we’ve seen during pre-season so far.
