If club football was home-grown only...

[N'ZMAV]

Albrighton is from Tamworth, so who would he qualify for?

Tamworth's bench.

[PeterWithesShin]

He isn't a brummie though.

But where would you draw the line?  Not all players are from big cities with PL clubs, so is it a county thing or a case of 'where is the nearest PL club to your place of birth'?

Exactly, take Essex, a fair sized county but I can only think of Southend and Colchester as league clubs, so if you are born there that is the highest level you can play at?

Or Kent and you're stuck at Gillingham for life.

[regular_john]

London teams would win everything in this country year in, year out. Higher population = much larger talent pool. On the plus side, the Manchester teams would be pretty much screwed!

[ADVILLAFAN]

London teams would win everything in this country year in, year out. Higher population = much larger talent pool. On the plus side, the Manchester teams would be pretty much screwed!

What about ot London was regionalised too. So Arsenal, Spurzz and Barnet in the North. West Ham, Dagenham, Millwall and Leyton Orient in the East and so on??

I did look at what a Brummie national team would be like, as we have a similar population to Northern Ireland. The main place I struggled filling was the goalkeeper. I think Dean Kiely may be a Brummie, think wiki says he was born in Salford, but he has a Brummie accent and I seem to remember thatFootball Manager had his favourite club as Villa. Half of the Irish team at the time would have been eligible for us:- Rory Delap, Lee Carsley, Is Ciaran Clark a Brummie?

[cdbearsfan]

Are we allowed players with a Brummie grandmother? Sure I read somewhere that Lionel Messi's nan was from Kitts Green.

[Handsworth Wood Villa]

Micah Richards was born in Birmingham but I think he would play for the Leeds team.

If Andy Carroll (Gateshead) can play for the Newcastle team the Craig Gardner (Solihull) can play for the Birmingham team.

We also forgot Zat Knight 

[TopDeck113]

I'm sure some of the clubs would find ways of circumventing any such rule.  Someone told me - and this is probably apocryphal - that when the PL academies were being brought into existence, there was a rule that boys still in full time education had to be living up to a maximum of 90 minutes travelling away from the Academy.  Now most of us would think that an hour and a half in dad's car would at least ensure that clubs would be drawing from the same geographical region. You'd be wrong.  The time was agreed upon as Manchester United knew that every other airport in the UK is within that flying time of Manchester. 

[Andy_Lochhead_in_the_air]

Peter Withe born Liverpool.
Peter McParland born Newry.
Thats the European and FA Cup wins screwed. Anybody know which ones out of  Walter Price, William Scattergood, Jack Hughes and Frederick Matthews were locally born ?
Oh yes, and Paul McGrath - ineligible !

[Concrete John]

Well

Are we allowed players with a Brummie grandmother? Sure I read somewhere that Lionel Messi's nan was from Kitts Green.

well, it worked for Jack Charlton......

[darren woolley]

Lee Hendrie and Darius Vassell.

[robbo1874]

In aus they have a three match rugby league series called state of origin between qld and nsw. Not 100% sure of the qualification criteria, but I think it goes on which state you played your first club 'football' in. The origin series is bigger than the actual NFL competition itself in terms of it's significance to the wider population.

You could have a north v south competition made up of prem players I suppose, but it probably wouldn't have the same significance given all the regional rivalries within the north and south. Couldn't see the clubs supporting it though as they hate even releasing players for international matches.

It's very common for league players to get crocked (sometimes by players from their own clubs) during origin matches and then be out with injury for their next club game the week after.

[gervilla]

In aus they have a three match rugby league series called state of origin between qld and nsw. Not 100% sure of the qualification criteria, but I think it goes on which state you played your first club 'football' in. The origin series is bigger than the actual NFL competition itself in terms of it's significance to the wider population.

You could have a north v south competition made up of prem players I suppose, but it probably wouldn't have the same significance given all the regional rivalries within the north and south. Couldn't see the clubs supporting it though as they hate even releasing players for international matches.

It's very common for league players to get crocked (sometimes by players from their own clubs) during origin matches and then be out with injury for their next club game the week after.

Don't they have the State of Origin series in Aussie Rules too .

[Mark Samuels]

Also, home grown - as in the title - to me suggests youth development. A related debate could cover which Premier League club would boast the best team from home grown talent. Plump Barry, for example, might have come Brighton but he made his professional debut for us, so he's ours. We've also had a strong - if not spectacular - period for youth development, so I think we would look good against most teams. But I might be going off-topic here. So, I'll stop.

[Louzie0]

Albrighton is from Tamworth, so who would he qualify for?

Whoever he wants to.

(But hopefully Villa!)

[hipkiss92]

Rather than saying you can only play for your closest club, wouldn't playing for any club within around 50 miles be a better way, so local clubs compete for local players, but they're not limited to one club