The Premier League has many foreign players. The number has steadily increased since the mid-nineties, and has now reached a point where they clearly outnumber the total number of outfield players of 220 (20 teams of 11). So, of course, the question of whether there are too many foreigners in the Premiership has to be raised.
Any top domestic league in Europe will have some foreign players in it to accompany their own players. Italy, Spain, Germany, and others all have a variable number of foreign players in their top domestic leagues. Generally, the leagues of Spain and Italy have a higher number than others, but the English league may well have the most.
Current data highlights that there are currently 396 foreign players in the Premiership out of 560. The percentage of English players in the Premier League is considerably lower than that of Italy. So, there are fewer English players proportionally per an average Premier League squad than there are Italian players in Serie A squads.
Former FA chiefs, such as Greg Dyke, have said the number of homegrown players is not bad, but there is room for improvement. Dyke established a commission that aimed to increase the number of English players in the Premier League to 45 percent by 2022. The FA failed to reach that target quite miserably.
What should the fans make of this, then? The Premiership does have quite a lot of foreign players, and a higher percentage than other top leagues. Therefore, in that respect, yes, it does have too many foreign players. Are the foreign players good for English football? If so, then the more the merrier, surely.
The Premiership clubs do well in Europe. The Champions League regularly features the top four in the later stages, and of course, they field a good number of foreign players in their lineups with fine skill, to complement some good English players also. In some of them, the foreign players clearly outnumber the domestic players.
To see all-foreign ‘English’ club teams, or at least largely foreign, will probably not help the England side. While the clubs might win in Europe, more English players should be on pitches rather than on benches at the club level. The England team needs to see its best players regularly playing in the best English club sides.
Some might argue that if English players are good enough, then they will start ahead of any foreign player. True enough, but with more and more foreign players, there is more competition. Therefore, the line must be drawn at some point, and the Premier League might be close to reaching it. The number of English players in the Premier League continues to fall, which has concerned the former England manager Gareth Southgate.
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