Reed: Quota on foreign players could harm team

manchester — A quota on foreign players in the Premier League could hinder rather than help the England team, according to former FA technical director Les Reed.

Andy Burnham, the opposition Labour Party’s home affairs spokesman, opened the Soccerex Global Convention by suggesting one of the advantages of Britain’s exit from the European Union could be the introduction of limits on foreign players, which would provide greater playing time for English talent.

But Reed, now director of football at Southampton, believes that would stunt the development of English players.

“I disagreed with what Andy Burnham said about Brexit and that quotas could be better for the England team,” Reed, 63, told Reuters.

“We supply more players to England at every age group than any other club and part of their development is training with the first team. “England Under 21s captain James Ward-Prowse — who has trained with them since he was 16 — has to cope with Jordy Clasie, Oriol Romeu and Pierre-Emile Hoejbjerg in centre midfield every day.

“There is a big risk that quotas would not enrich the experience of English youngsters.

“Players in the (second tier) Championship would be promoted to replace the foreign players and that would alter the menu of training and not be beneficial to England.”

Reed believes Southampton’s strategy is one of the reasons their academy has groomed the likes of Theo Walcott, Luke Shaw, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Calum Chambers in recent years. —

There is a big risk that quotas would not enrich the experience of English youngsters Les Reed, FA technical director