UEFA home-grown rules partially breach EU rules, EU court adviser says

BRUSSELS: UEFA's home-grown rules setting a quota of locally trained players at clubs are partially incompatible with EU rules and may benefit bigger clubs eyeing young players at smaller rivals, an adviser to Europe's top court said on Thursday.

The case centres on a dispute between European soccer's governing body and a Belgian club together with a player over UEFA's home-grown player rules dating back to the 2008/2009 season which set a quota of locally trained players at clubs but without any discrimination on nationality.

Royal Antwerp FC had argued that the rules hamper a professional club from recruiting and fielding players who do not meet the requirement of local or national roots, violating both EU competition and free movement of workers rules.

It said the rules also reduce the chances for some players to be recruited and fielded in a match.

Royal Antwerp and the player took their grievances about UEFA and Belgian soccer governing body URBSFA, which has similar rules, to a Belgian court which subsequently sought advice from the Luxembourg-based EU Court of Justice (CJEU).

The player was not identified by the court but media reports named him as 36-year-old Lior Refaelov, an Israel international who was at Royal Antwerp but joined Anderlecht in April 2021.

UEFA defines locally-trained or 'home-grown' players as those who, regardless of their nationality, have been trained by their club or by another club in the same national association for at least three years between the age of 15 and 21.

Up to half of the locally-trained players must be from the club itself, with the others being either from the club itself or from other clubs in the same association.

CJEU Advocate General Maciej Szpunar said that while the