Martin O’Neill has confessed that in January he wasn’t aware of UEFA regulations on squad submissions.
O’Neill managed Celtic for two group stage matches during his first spell as Interim Manager then returned for the final two after the disastrous 33 day reign of Wilfried Nancy.
It is long established by UEFA that clubs have to include four ‘club trained’ players in their 25 man squad.
They also have to include ‘four association trained players’, in Celtic’s case players like Luke McCowan, Greg Taylor and David Turnbull who have came through other Scottish academies.
Celtic players can be included as National developed players with Adam Montgomery in the squad to face LASK under that criteria.
In January Celtic signed Junior Adamu, Joel Mvuka and Ben Arthur on Deadline Day. Only Adamu was named in the Europa League squad which included Julian Araujo and Tomas Cvancara who had been signed earlier in the month.
During the summer transfer window Celtic signed 10 new players with five of them on loan deals. Six of those transfer were done in the 48 hours before the UEFA deadline of 11pm on Wednesday.
It seems inevitable that some of that some of the new arrivals will be left out of Celtic’s Europa League squad. O’Neill suggested that the permanent arrivals will be given priority.
After the 3-0 win over Aberdeen O’Neill was asked about how he discusses the possibility of not being involved in European matches to new players.
O’NEILL AND CELTIC’S UEFA SQUAD MANAGEMENT
O’Neill raised the possibility that he could still sign players even if they missed the European deadline which prompted an inevitable question.
QUESTION: Do you think it would still be worth it, even if they can’t play these European games?
ANSWER:
The problem with the European things is that this time, I didn’t know the rules. I came in, in January of last time. So I ended up promising one of the players that we brought in to this squad. And then I had to tell him. He nearly took the bus home!
So I had to tell him that I hadn’t realised because there’s only an X number you can do. You’ve got your Scottish contingent, then you’ve got a few changes that you can make. And honestly, I just didn’t know.
And when he came up here, he did fine. And he didn’t make the squad. So I had to try and see what sort of positions are available.
And really, sometimes the people who are signed to the football club, who belong to the football club permanently, or as players, maybe they deserve first shot.
It may well just be O’Neill playing the dozy old Uncle to get some laughs from his younger media audience but he did go into some detail on his surprise at the well known UEFA regulations.
With Michael Nicholson apparently being a ‘leading sports lawyer’ you would have thought that some of the transfer discussions would reference the ‘four and four’ ruling.
Effectively it only allows 17 non-Scots to be registered in the UEFA squads.
Club trained applies to players aged 15-21 who have been with the club for at least three years. Kris Ajer qualified for one season on that basis.
It is well known throughout football that there are UEFA restrictions on squads in their competitions.
In England the ruling has pushed up the value of English trained players which goes a long way to explaining the £116 fee paid for Elliot Anderson by Manchester City.
Previously they had paid £100m for Jack Grealish.
UEFA have still to publish their Europa League squads, when it lands there will be disappointment for some of the players in the bloated Celtic squad.
