Too few homegrown players only lowers the squad limit
A Premier League squad list can hold up to 25 players, and no more than 17 of them can be non-homegrown. Because the rule is written as a limit on non-homegrown players, a club with few homegrown players simply has a lower limit on how many it can register, and there is no penalty. Under-21s (for 2026/27, players born on or after 1 January 2005) do not have to be on the list and can play league matches with no limit on numbers, so a club may use more than 25 players over a season. Homegrown status, whatever a player's nationality, depends on whether he was registered with clubs in England or Wales for three seasons (or 36 months) by the end of the season in which he turns 21. Later sections cover when the lists are submitted and the cases where a player does not count as homegrown in the Champions League.
If a club has fewer than eight homegrown players, its limit becomes 17 plus the number of homegrown players it has. With six, it can register no more than 23. According to Sky Sports, the list Tottenham submitted in February 2020 had only four homegrown players, which under the rules would put their limit at 21. In 2026/27, exactly eight of Liverpool's 25 are homegrown.
Under-21s can play without being on the list
Under-21 status is based on a player's age on 1 January of the year the season starts, so someone born in January 2005 is still an under-21 even after he turns 22 during the season. In the Premier League's official squad lists, Manchester United's list has 23 names, and Kobbie Mainoo and Leny Yoro appear on the separate under-21 list instead. Once a player is no longer an under-21, he has to go on the list, and if he is not homegrown, he takes one of the 17 non-homegrown places.
Homegrown status comes from registrations up to the age of 21
The league's rules define a homegrown player as one who, whatever his nationality or age, has been registered for a total of three seasons or 36 months with clubs affiliated to the Football Association or the Football Association of Wales before his 21st birthday (or before the end of the season in which he turns 21). He does not have to have come through his current club's academy. Periods of registration with any club in England or Wales can be added together.
Since nationality plays no part, foreign players can be homegrown too. In the Premier League's official lists for 2025/26, Arsenal's David Raya, William Saliba and Gabriel Martinelli were all marked as homegrown. There is no nationality quota in the Premier League's registration rules. Foreign players who need new immigration permission to work in the UK go through a separate process, with a Governing Body Endorsement (GBE) from the FA and the UK government's immigration checks.
The same test applies to players who have left Atlético. Conor Gallagher joined Atlético from Chelsea in August 2024 and moved to Tottenham in January 2026. He is marked as homegrown on Tottenham's 2026/27 list. Because the test looks at registrations up to the age of 21, his year and a half in Spain makes no difference.
The list is required for league games after the summer window closes
A player has to be on the list, or be an under-21, for league matches played between the close of the summer transfer window and the end of the season. From the start of the season in August until the window shuts, players can appear without being on the list. Richarlison, for example, does not appear on the 2026/27 Tottenham list published by the Premier League, but he started the opening game against Brentford, which was played before the window closed.
Lists are submitted twice a year, straight after the summer window closes and after the January window. Changing a list while no transfer window is open needs the permission of the league's board.
Being left off the list only rules a player out of Premier League matches. Richarlison was reported to still be eligible for the League Cup. Whether a player can take part in any other competition depends on that competition's own rules.
In the Champions League the same player may not count as homegrown
The UEFA Champions League also has a 25-player limit and its own quota of eight for players trained locally. Under the competition's 2026/27 regulations, at least eight places on the 25-man list are reserved for locally trained players, and a club with fewer than eight has its list limit cut by the shortfall.
The two rules differ on when the registration period starts and on which clubs count. UEFA looks at whether a player was registered for three seasons (or 36 months) with his current club or with clubs in the same national association, between the season in which he turns 15 and the season in which he turns 21. Clubs in England and Wales are not grouped together. Ben Davies, for example, is homegrown on Tottenham's 2026/27 Premier League list, but Sky Sports reported in 2020 that Davies, who came through at Swansea in Wales, did not count as homegrown under UEFA's rules.
There is also a separate Champions League list on which clubs can register under-21 players with no limit on numbers. It covers, among others, players born on or after 1 January 2005 who have been eligible to play for the club for two years in a row since the age of 15.
In La Liga, the non-EU quota and the LCPD shape registration
In La Liga's top flight, too, a club can register up to 25 players for its first team, the same number as in the Premier League. But Article 22 of the competition rules of the RFEF, the Spanish football federation, sets a nationality quota of no more than three non-EU players and has no Premier League-style rule on the number of homegrown players. Non-EU rules are compared in the column on the big five leagues' non-EU quotas.
The other factor in registration is the LCPD, La Liga's squad cost limit. It is the amount a club can spend that season, as it stands after the summer window, and it covers personnel costs for the academy as well as the first team. Atlético's limit for 2026/27 stood at about €361.29m as of September 2026. To register a new player, a club needs room within that limit that it can use for registrations, or has to fall under one of the special cases set out in the rules. How the LCPD works is explained in more detail in the column on FFP and La Liga's financial rules.