http://www.espnfc.us/blog/football-a...e-breakthrough
Premier League needs more like Ki Sung-yueng and Shinji Okazaki
By John Duerden
Another Premier League season is upon us and fans around the world will tune in. It is the same in Asia, a continent that has become an increasingly important source of revenue for the league.
At the moment, however, there is a dearth of Asian players in England's top flight.
You have Ki Sung-yueng at Swansea City, Shinji Okazaki at Leicester City, Crystal Palace's Lee Chung-yong and Moya Yoshida at Southampton. It is unlikely there will be many more joining them before the transfer window shuts in September. Greg Dyke, the chairman of the Football Association, has something to do with that.
Dyke is committed to tightening the work permit rules for non-EU players in English football -- rules that were already tighter than in most other leagues. The administrator has made it his mission to have more English players playing for clubs in the Premier League. Last season the figure was 35 percent and Dyke wants to see it climb to over 40 percent.
From this summer, players from outside the European Union who want to work in England must play for a country ranked in FIFA's top 50 and have played 75 percent of full internationals in the previous two years. For those ranked higher, the percentage requirement reduces until those from top-10 nations only need to have appeared in 30 percent of games. In the past, even if a player did not meet those requirements, clubs could appeal and did so successfully in 79 percent of cases. This aspect will become more difficult too.
In July, South Korea's Kim Bo-Kyung, formerly of Cardiff City, was denied a work permit when trying to join Blackburn Rovers in the Championship. The appeal failed when, in the past, it probably would not have.
The new rules make it almost impossible for Asian players to head straight to England from their homelands. It will almost be not worth trying.
Occasionally, teams have signed players who did not meet requirements and farmed them out to the Netherlands or Belgium until they qualified, as Manchester United did with Dong Fangzhou and Arsenal with Ryo Miyaichi. It didn't work and it is not a path the best young talent like to take when there are easier ones elsewhere.
At the moment, only one Asian team is inside the top 50 with Iran at 41. South Korea are next at 54, with Japan at 56. Australia are at 61 but often players from Down Under have European passports. There will be some who claim if Asia can't produce teams that are good enough to be in the top 50, there is no reason for English football to let them play. After all, most Asian leagues restrict the number of foreign players each team is allowed to sign.
Premier League needs more like Ki Sung-yueng and Shinji Okazaki
By John Duerden
Another Premier League season is upon us and fans around the world will tune in. It is the same in Asia, a continent that has become an increasingly important source of revenue for the league.
At the moment, however, there is a dearth of Asian players in England's top flight.
You have Ki Sung-yueng at Swansea City, Shinji Okazaki at Leicester City, Crystal Palace's Lee Chung-yong and Moya Yoshida at Southampton. It is unlikely there will be many more joining them before the transfer window shuts in September. Greg Dyke, the chairman of the Football Association, has something to do with that.
Dyke is committed to tightening the work permit rules for non-EU players in English football -- rules that were already tighter than in most other leagues. The administrator has made it his mission to have more English players playing for clubs in the Premier League. Last season the figure was 35 percent and Dyke wants to see it climb to over 40 percent.
From this summer, players from outside the European Union who want to work in England must play for a country ranked in FIFA's top 50 and have played 75 percent of full internationals in the previous two years. For those ranked higher, the percentage requirement reduces until those from top-10 nations only need to have appeared in 30 percent of games. In the past, even if a player did not meet those requirements, clubs could appeal and did so successfully in 79 percent of cases. This aspect will become more difficult too.
In July, South Korea's Kim Bo-Kyung, formerly of Cardiff City, was denied a work permit when trying to join Blackburn Rovers in the Championship. The appeal failed when, in the past, it probably would not have.
The new rules make it almost impossible for Asian players to head straight to England from their homelands. It will almost be not worth trying.
Occasionally, teams have signed players who did not meet requirements and farmed them out to the Netherlands or Belgium until they qualified, as Manchester United did with Dong Fangzhou and Arsenal with Ryo Miyaichi. It didn't work and it is not a path the best young talent like to take when there are easier ones elsewhere.
At the moment, only one Asian team is inside the top 50 with Iran at 41. South Korea are next at 54, with Japan at 56. Australia are at 61 but often players from Down Under have European passports. There will be some who claim if Asia can't produce teams that are good enough to be in the top 50, there is no reason for English football to let them play. After all, most Asian leagues restrict the number of foreign players each team is allowed to sign.
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