The Evening Standard’s Dan Kilpatrick has revealed that UEFA have changed their stance on Ben Davies, with the defender now being considered ‘homegrown’ in the Champions League.
According to the previous regulations, although Davies was considered homegrown according to Premier League rules, he would have had to be listed as a non-homegrown player in the Champions League (Football.London).
This was because the 29-year-old spent his formative years trained by a Welsh club in the form of Swansea City before making the switch to North London.
According to the old rules, Tottenham were one player over the limit of the 17 non-homegrown players allowed for the Champions League, which meant they would have had to leave a player out of their squad.
However, Kilpatrick has revealed that Davies now counts as an ‘association-trained’ player in European competitions because Welsh clubs are affiliated with the English league.
This means that the defender can now be listed as homegrown, which in turn means Spurs can register their full 25-man squad for CL without omitting a foreign player from their list.
Spurs Web Opinion
This is a common sense move from UEFA, given that Welsh clubs are part of the English football pyramid. I do wonder if Tottenham might have made a different decision regarding Joe Rodon this summer if UEFA had intimated earlier that they were about to make this rule change.
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