First of all, as some Arseweb readers have written to point out, or ask about, the rule has NOTHING to do with nationality. It refers only to where the players were trained.

Second, while UEFA are recommending that the rule be applied by national associations at domestic level, the Premier League have said that it's extremely unlikely that they will do so. The following rules will therefore only affect only the squad that we have to register with UEFA for the Champions League (or UEFA Cup).

So, what are the new rules? All the following quotes are from this media release (PDF) published by UEFA on the 3rd of this month...

1. "Squad lists for UEFA competitions will continue to be limited to 25 players for the A list. The B list will continue to exist as per current regulations."

So, the number of players that we can have in our squad will not change. The "B list" can contain only players that are under 21 and have been at the club for at least 2 seasons. And it's only about overall squads, not line-ups.

These rules would NOT have made any difference to the team for the Crystal Palace game! (even if the Premier League were to adopt them for domestic competitions, which they almost certainly won't).

2. "As from season 2006-07, at least 2 places in the A list will be reserved for players trained by the club's own football academy and a further 2 places for players trained by other clubs from the same association."

These numbers will each rise to 3 for the following 2 seasons, and following that (from 2008-09 onwards) the A list of 25 will have to include 4 from the club's academy and 4 from the academies of other clubs in the association.

3. "A club-trained player is defined as a player who has been registered for a minimum of 3 seasons with the club between the ages of 15 and 21."

Now, up to this point the UEFA document makes it look as if we'd NEED to have 2 to 4 players trained NOT by Arsenal but by other English clubs. But...

4. "...whereas an association-trained player is a player who has been registered for at least 3 seasons by the club or by other clubs affiliated to the same association between the ages of 15 and 21."

So actually, all of the "home-grown" players could be players trained at Arsenal, the requirement is just that at least half of them were.

One very important point to note is that this is NOT about young players, it's about where the players trained. If we were to sign Michael Owen or David Beckham, for instance, they would count. And players that are under 21 and have been at the club for (only) 2 years can go in the B list anyway!

How would this affect Arsenal? Well, despite all the hoo-ha about Monday's all-foreign Arsenal squad, it might affect us less than a lot of other clubs. For a start, our B list is going to be stronger than most. Secondly, Arsenal have a policy of recruiting players from around the world at a young age, and have proven to be pretty good at picking them. The squad on Monday may only have contained Justin Hoyte as a "home-grown" player under the above rules. But by the time the regulations come in, both Cesc Fabregas and Philippe Senderos will also count. As will Lupoli and Aliadiere and Quincy, and most of the rest of our superb League Cup squad. Unlike Richard, I don't think we'd be buggered under the new rules. like I said above, the side that trounced Palace was fine under these rules - we'd just have had to have a couple more kids on the bench! And even if we didn't have the players to put in the European squad, we'd only have to have a slightly shorter "A list". Note that last season we only used 21 players in Europe anyway, and that included Taylor, Cole, Campbell, Parlour, Pennant, Aliadiere, and Bentley...

Like Richard, I don't think it'd be a bad thing if the rules push Arsenal into recruiting a few more young Brits, because perhaps they're more likely to stay than the foreingers. But at the end of the day they'll still only stay if they're better than the alternatives, and so far Arsenal seem to be pretty good at hanging onto their young foreigners.

But one effect, paradoxically, may be detrimental to the development of young players: because clubs like Arsenal will be more likely than they are today to hang onto home-grown players and keep them in the reserves, rather than let them go and develop their careers properly elsewhere. Maybe we'll see them get a few more games with the Arsenal first team, but perhaps more likely we'll just see even more kids go out on loan deals!

Anyway, it occurs to me that the main effect of this news may not be related to Arsenal's squad on Monday, but to another recent story: the alleged tapping up of Ashley Cole by Chelsea. As our senior "home-grown" player, perhaps the main effect will be to make it easier for players like Cole to hold their clubs to ransom (not that I'm saying that's what he's doing, or that he wants to go to Chelsea, or anything else negative - it's just a hypothetical example).

And finally, it was amusing to see the Sun roll out Liam Chilvers as an example of home-grown talent that was unable to break through at Highbury. That's Liam Chilvers, now plying his trade at, errrrr, Colchester, and whose Highbury career was cut short because of the emergence of, errr, Justin Hoyte, who's English....