The FA are planning to reduce the number of overseas players in a Premier League squad from 17 to 12, according to a report in The Times.
The new proposal has been designed in response to Brexit and would help increase the number of home-grown players in the league.
If a deal is reached, the FA will in return give work permit endorsements to every foreign player who signs a contract with a Premier League club.
However if the clubs fail to reach an agreement, they will face a ‘no deal’ scenario which would cause issues for EU players.
Any new signing would have to fulfil the same criteria as non-EU players to get a work permit, a longer and more complicated process.
The proposal will be put to clubs this week, and it’s unknown how the majority will respond.
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Some are expected to fight the proposal, while others will likely be happy for other squads to suffer.
How the deal effects Newcastle’s squad
Newcastle are one of the thirteen clubs that have more than 12 overseas players in their first-team squad.
In fact, the Toon are heavily reliant on overseas players.
Against Bournemouth on Saturday they submitted a squad of 14 players, who represented 14 different nationalities:
Martin Dubravka (Slovakia), DeAndre Yedlin (USA), Fabian Schar (Switzerland), Federico Fernandez (Argentina), Paul Dummett (Wales), Matt Ritchie (Scotland), Mohamed Diame (Senegal), Ki Sung-yueng (South Korea), Kenedy (Brazil), Ayoze Perez (Spain), Salomon Rondon (Venezuela), Isaac Hayden (England), Ciaran Clark (Republic of Ireland), Christian Atsu (Ghana).
It’s an incredibly diverse squad, and a lot of the key players are foreign.
Current rules identify a home-grown player as English or Welsh.
The rules also accept players who have been signed to an English or Welsh club for three years between the ages of 15 to 21.
That means that 14 players from Newcastle’s current squad are classified as overseas players.
If the proposal goes through, the Toon would have to show two of them the door.
Realistically though, Newcastle losing two overseas players doesn’t seem entirely drastic.
Many fans would enjoy seeing academy graduates given a chance in place of unused foreign players.
A positive or negative impact on the squad?
Players like Moroccan left-back Achraf Lazaar haven’t played for Newcastle since the team’s return to the Premier League in 2017.
He’s the sort of player the squad doesn’t really need and could easily be let go.
But after him it gets tricky.
All of Newcastle’s other overseas players are regularly in the match day squad, despite some seeing little game time.
It becomes a question of who in the youth teams can offer more?
The reserve players closest to the first team are arguably Sean Longstaff, Cal Roberts and Elias Sorensen.
Many supporters would prefer to see Roberts and Sorensen to Atsu and Joselu. But whether they are better options remains to be seen.
A dilemma for Newcastle is that a deal would probably increase the value of English players in the transfer market.
And with overseas players limited, they wont be able to strengthen the side with cheaper foreign players.
Consequently, it’s probably in Newcastle’s best interests to fight this new ruling.