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Squad registration and player eligibility

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EPL and UEFA squad registration - Suggestions for how to improve the current squad statistics

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Introduction

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This document started its life as a speculative suggestion posted on another Wikipedia editor's Talk Page at the beginning of August 2010. From the perspective of typical Talk Page messages it was quite lengthy and contained much detail. Once the concepts and ideas originally proposed in that initial message were amenably received by other editors that original post was then moved over to this User Page where it has subsequently been developed into a control document that now serves as a single repository for the specification and rationalization for most of the changes that have been made to the current Manchester City 2010-11 season article since the middle of August 2010. The initial post (that has subsequently evolved into this control document) was originally moved over to reside at this location because this User Page is adjacent to the Talk Page that served as the actual sandbox where most of the concepts and ideas that are specified, analyzed and explained in this document were initially prototyped.

The original impetus that spawned that initial posted message was driven by a desire by its author to try and determine how much truth and accuracy lay behind much of the twaddle that had been written in the various popular media about the extent to which the new English Premier League (EPL) "squad registration" ruling for this season would detrimentally affect Manchester City in comparison to all the other clubs. This author was convinced that the new Premier League 25-man registered squad stipulation would adversely affect clubs such as Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool much more severely than it would Manchester City - if it would affect any of these clubs at all - and in the end that is exactly the way things turned out. But not to jump the gun here, we must initially start at the beginning ...

The first step in solving this issue was to determine which players were actually in the effective first team squads (from which the 25 players would ultimately have to be chosen for EPL registration) of Manchester City F.C. (MCFC) plus a number of other EPL first team squads selected for the purposes of comparison (in the end, the first team squads of the "Big 4" EPL clubs were utilized). Consequently, much attention has been paid throughout this document WRT how to come up with a methodology that deterministically identifies the effective first team squad of each of the five clubs being analyzed so that a fair "apples to apples" comparison could be made. Whether that goal has been totally successful is debatable, but where before this exercise was undertaken that process was more of an art than a science, hopefully it is now at least much more of a science than an art!

There is a very strong argument for updating the Wikipedia season articles of all of the EPL clubs so that they each better reflect accurate and verifiable information pertaining to the issue of squad registration and the resultant player eligibility for specific games, because from this season onwards, this issue will affect the playing validity in EPL fixtures of the vast majority of first team players currently on the books of all EPL clubs. But how does one determine "accurate and verifiable information" WRT player eligibility that is worthy of being displayed in an article, rather than simply regressing such an article with the addition of a lot of uncitable (and thus indefensible) idle speculation and gossip? This document is an attempt to define and explain one possible solution to that problem.

Methodology

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The approach was a 3-step one. First, understand what the new EPL registration ruling actually mandates (most people's opinion on this issue falls at this first hurdle) and how it differs from the existing squad registration rules that UEFA already have in place for clubs competing in the Champions League and Europa League competitions. Second, understand the actual ages and early career paths of the individual players in the five first team squads being analyzed (and most, if not all, of that information is currently already available on the web via the various biographical Wikipedia articles for each of those players, and if not there, in comparable biographies for those players that are posted on the official web sites of the clubs for whom they play). Third, correctly apply the ruling of the first step to the information gathered in the second step to come up with a clear classification for each player that can be easily displayed (and subsequently maintained) in the "Season 2010-11" Wikipedia article for that club. This 3-step approach was executed for the current first team squads of Manchester City, Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool.

Set out below are the results of pursuing that strategy. Errors may quite possibly have been made at each of the three steps, but just like setting out each step of a mathematical proof, these can be spotted by others and corrected to yield the correct answer instead of the initial erroneous one. Such errors (if they exist) do NOT invalidate this methodology; they are only pertinent to its application in a few specific cases (which can be subsequently corrected). So here are the results of the first pass at coming to grips with this fascinating issue ...

Execution

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STEP 1a - Understanding the new EPL player registration ruling

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Starting with the upcoming 2010-11 season, every EPL team will only be able to field a player in EPL matches that does not meet the 'Under 21 Player' provision (see below) if he has been registered with the FA before the end of the summer transfer window. Each EPL team can register no more than 25 such players, although less than that number may be registered. Any player that does meet the 'Under 21 Player' provision does not have to be registered in this (up to) 25-man squad in order to be eligible to play in EPL matches during the season.
Within every EPL team's (up to) 25-man registered squad, 8 slots must be reserved only for players that meet the 'Homegrown Player' provision (see below). If an EPL team chooses (or is unable) to register the maximum 8 players permitted for these slots then any unused 'Homegrown Player' slots will be forfeited. An EPL team may register more than 8 players that meet the 'Homegrown Player' provision up to a maximum of the 25-man maximum for the squad.
An EPL team may also register in a similar manner any number of players (up to a maximum of 17) that do not meet the 'Homegrown Player' provision. However, the total number of both types of "over 21" players so registered cannot exceed the 25-man maximum for the squad. The pertinent reference for the above regulations is Section L of [1].
Homegrown Player Provision: A "homegrown player" is defined as one who, irrespective of his nationality or age, has been registered with any club affiliated to the Football Association or the Welsh Football Association for a period, continuous or not, of three entire seasons or 36 months prior to his 21st birthday (or the end of the season during which he turns 21).
Under 21 Player Provision: For a youth player to meet this provision he must be younger than 21 years of age, OR have turned 21 years of age AFTER January 1 of the year in which the season starts, on the first day of the season (viz. 1/1/2010 for this upcoming season). Thus many qualifying players will already be 21 years of age come the start of the season in question.
EPL Sources:
1. Rules of the Premier League, Season 2010-11 Section L - Players' Registration


STEP 1b - Understanding the differences between the UEFA and EPL player registration requirements

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The new EPL Player Registration regulations parallel the existing UEFA Player Registration regulations for the most part, but with the following two major differences:
(1) The UEFA squad registration requirements for "Homegrown Players" are a little stiffer - namely, 4 out of the 8 "Homegrown Player" slots can only be filled by players that have qualified for that status via the club's own academy. The pertinent references for this requirement are articles §18.08 through §18.12 in both [2] and [3], and articles §15.09 through §15.13 in [4].
(2) The UEFA squad registration requirements for "Youth Players" are also somewhat more stringent, requiring that a young player have been registered with a club (for which he was eligible to play) for a period of at least two uninterrupted years since his 15th birthday before he is then eligible to be registered with UEFA and fielded as a "Youth Player" in any UEFA competitive match by that club. The comparable EPL requirement mandates no such prior tenure. The pertinent references for this requirement are articles §18.16 in both [2] and [3], and article §15.15 in [4]. Note that if a youth player is on loan to another club he is NOT eligible to play for his parent club during the period of that loan spell.
UEFA Sources:
2. Regulations of the UEFA Champions League, Season 2010-11 Section X - Player Eligibility
3. Regulations of the UEFA Europa League, Season 2010-11 Section X - Player Eligibility
4. Regulations of the UEFA Super Cup, Season 2010 Section X - Player Eligibility


STEP 2a - Applying the EPL and UEFA player eligibility regulations to the current Manchester City first team squad

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The results of this process are shown in the comments / notes to the right hand side of most players' names in the "STEP 3a" section below. No effort was made to provide such notes for players that obviously do not meet the "Homegrown" nor "Under 21" provisions; notes were only provided to support the classification veracity of those players that were believed to meet these provisions. One of the things that surprised this author in executing this undertaking was how much he had misunderstood the requirements of the new ruling.
Until actually executing Step 1 above, this author had probably been subconsciously influenced by the prior UEFA requirements into believing that the eight "Homegrown" players had to have accumulated their required three years of "Under 21" registered service in the actual academy of the club in question instead of being a registered player with ANY English or Welsh club, and not necessarily having been required to have participated in those clubs' academies (thus three years playing only for the first team of an English or Welsh club between the ages of 18 and 21 still satisfies the "Homegrown" provision).
One of the consequences of this epiphany was a further investigation into when exactly Wenger brought players such as Patrick Vieira into Arsenal. If he had signed Vieira as an 18 year old (and Wenger usually signs up his young French / foreign players at an age much younger than that), and Vieira had played his first three seasons for Arsenal (whether in the first team or not) between the ages of 18 and 21, then Patrick would have met the "Homegrown" provision. In fact, applying this provision to the Manchester City squad was quite an eye-opener. Before starting this exercise this author had assumed (like I think most other people are assuming) that the stiff competition at City for an EPL squad place was for one of the 17 "other" places in the 25-man squad, and not for one of the eight "Homegrown" places (for which City have more than an adequate number of senior academy graduates to completely utilize).
Of course, there was indeed stiff competition in this area, but it had more to do with how many of City's "Homegrown" players bled beyond the eight designated "Homegrown" slots into some of the other 17 slots that only the "foreign" (= not "Homegrown") players could use. The initial analysis revealed that it was extremely likely that Mancini would be registering quite a few more than the required eight "Homegrown" players in his two 25-man squads. The consequences of his registering more than 11 "Homegrown" players would be to effectively deprive places in the two squads to some of City's more famous foreign "Galácticos" who could only have been included in those squads via one of those "foreign" slots now being utilized by a "Homegrown" player.


STEPs 2b - 2e - Applying the EPL and UEFA player eligibility regulations to current first team squads of other clubs

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For the sake of comparison, this same process was repeated for the current Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool first team squads. The results of these additional analyses are similarly shown in the comments / notes to the right hand side of most players' names in the "STEP 3b" through "STEP 3e" sections below.


STEP 3 - Classifying each player in a select number of Premier League first team squads

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In the individual worksheets that follow, each player in the "official" first team squad of each of the clubs analyzed is assigned a "Squad Status" designation plus a corresponding three-letter acronym (TLA) code according to the following player classification rules:
Code Squad Status Status Description
U21 UNDER 21 A young player that satisfies the Premier League Youth Player provision.
YTH YOUTH A young player that satisfies the UEFA Youth Player provision.
HGP HOMEGROWN A senior player that satisfies BOTH the Premier League Homegrown
Player and the UEFA Association-trained Player provisions.
ACG ACADEMY GRADUATE A senior player that satisfies the UEFA Club-trained Player provision.
FOR FOREIGN A player that does NOT satisfy ANY of the provisions listed above.
Within each worksheet that follows, the players in that club's "official" first team squad are organized into a maximum of six groupings or pools, with the players listed in each pool being ordered based on increasing first team squad number. The six pools of players correspond to the five "Squad Status" categories defined in the table above plus a sixth pool (if relevant) made up of "fringe players" (this concept is more accurately defined in a later section in this document) who, despite being listed as being in the first team squad, have yet to debut for that first team. Note that NOT all of these six pools necessarily applies to each of the clubs analyzed (e.g., some clubs do not have any "HGP" players and some clubs do not have any "fringe players") - hence the players are grouped into any number of the pertinent pools up to a maximum of six pools.
The "official" first team squad roster used for each club analyzed was taken from the appropriate web page of the official web site (OWS) pertaining to that club. A reliable source (RS) citation has been added to the end of each worksheet to indicate the specific OWS first team squad listing on which that worksheet wad based, and to identify the date of the last time any of the players listed in that worksheet were modified (i.e., added to or deleted from the worksheet squad) as a result of changes done to the associated OWS page(s) on which the worksheet is based.
Note that this an "update date stamp" that reflects the date that the last edit was done to this document to re-synchronize the worksheet information with the OWS page(s) again, and NOT the date that those changes were first detected on the OWS, nor the date that those changes to the OWS page(s) were actually made (which is virtually impossible to determine short of checking the contents of the OWS page(s) concerned, for each of the clubs analyzed, on a regular daily basis). This "date stamp" also has nothing whatsoever to do with any other editorial changes done to the various worksheets (those are all separately identified and timestamped in the "update logs" at the top of each worksheet) - the "update date stamp" at the base of a worksheet ONLY identifies when that worksheet had to be modified due to the makeup of a club's "official" first team squad being changed on the associated OWS.


(Note: The worksheet analyses of the following first team squads have now been moved to external sub-pages.)

STEP 3a : MANCHESTER CITY
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STEP 3b : ARSENAL
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STEP 3c : CHELSEA
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STEP 3d : LIVERPOOL
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STEP 3e : MANCHESTER UNITED
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Squad Status codes

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The various three-letter acronym codifications utilized in the presentation of the various Step 3 worksheets above (viz. 'YTH', 'U21', 'ACG', 'HGP' and 'FOR') represent merely the effective conjunction of two pieces of individually citable information that most likely already exist somewhere within the various citable sources already being used to justify the presence in the latest version of the "MCFC Season 2010-11" article "Squad statistics" table of every player currently listed there - namely, his current age and his junior playing (thus club registration) history prior to age 21. An interpretation of both the UEFA and EPL player registration provisions (also externally citable, however they were paraphrased for the reader's convenience in Steps 1a and 1b above) was then applied in Step 2 to those two pieces of citable fact in order to deterministically deduce a resultant classification for each player that was then codified with a TLA Squad Status code.

Furthermore, the above Squad Status codes assigned to each of the first team players in a given squad should be regarded as an "attribute" of that specific player that summarizes his capabilities WRT being included in various registered team squads in the same manner that the 'GK', 'DF', 'MF' and 'FW' Position codes summarize that same player's footballing capabilities WRT being included on any match day team sheet. Thus, for example, Adebayor's 'FOR' Squad Status code informs you that if he is utilized in a team squad that requires registration - currently only the "EPL squad" or the "UEFA squad", but it might be more in the future - then he will occupy / consume one of the designated "foreign" slots in that squad. Consequently, Addy's 'FOR' Squad Status code tells the reader something about the limitations on how he might be registered in any UEFA or EPL team squad for which he is selected, just as his 'FW' Position code tells you something about the limitations of how he might best be utilized out on the actual field of play (viz. that ideally he should not be playing in goal or as a center-back!).

Appending digits to the TLA Squad Status codes

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In the presentation of the Step 3 worksheet analyses above digits were appended to the Squad Status TLA codes of only those players in each club's official first team squad that have (a) actually played for the first team in a competitive fixture (i.e., not a friendly fixture such as a pre-season match or a testimonial game) at some time in the past, AND (b) are currently available to play for the first team this season. First team squad players that are currently out on loan to other clubs (and thus not available to actually play in their club's first team campaigns at this point in the current season) have "XX" appended to their TLA codes instead. When these players return back to their parent club from their temporary loan spells the appended "XX" will either be removed if they are "fringe players" (see below) or replaced with digits if they are not.

Players that have nothing appended to their TLA codes fail condition (a) above. These players are referred to throughout this document as "fringe players" (because they are on the fringe of breaking into the nucleus of their respective first teams) since they have the distinction of being part of their respective first team squads without ever having made their debut competitively for those teams. For example, at the current time of writing, Liverpool and Manchester United both have seven such "fringe players" in their first team squads, Manchester City has one, while Arsenal and Chelsea do not have any.

All of the players that are indicated as being out on longer term loans in the above worksheets (i.e., 3 months or longer) started their current loan spells during the summer transfer window, while many of the players indicated as being out on shorter term loans also started their loan spells during this window. However, short term emergency loans can occur at any time in the season so this procedure of flagging players as being out on loan (by appending "XX" to their TLA codes) and then restoring them back to being an active member of their first team squads once their loan spells terminate (by removing the appended "XX") is always an ongoing process.

In addition to first team squad "fringe players" that are yet to make their first team debut in a competitive game, at the time of writing, two out of the five clubs analyzed in the above worksheets also contain senior (i.e., over the age of 21) players in their first team squads that are not registered in either of the respective club's UEFA or EPL 25-man squads, thus they are ineligible to play in either Premier League matches or any of the games in the pertinent UEFA competition that their club is involved in this season. These players are also referred to as being "fringe players" since although they can still represent their clubs in either of the domestic cup competitions they are effectively barred from playing in the majority of their club's competitive fixtures this season.

The players that do not get registered for one or both of the two 25-man squads will, of course, still be eligible to play for their respective teams in all competitions other than the ones requiring those registered squads, which are referred to with the blanket term "domestic cup" competitions (meaning the FA Cup and the League Cup) - but that term will also include any other competitive fixtures during the season that may have been overlooked. Senior first team players that have NOT been registered for either of a club's 25-man squads have "00" appended to their TLA codes to indicate that they are active and available members of their respective club's first team squads, while this also prevents them from being enumerated as one of the members of the UEFA and EPL squads.

All of the foregoing can be summarized in the following five tables that breakdown the numbers of each type of player in all of the official first teams squads analyzed in the worksheets above, identifying how many of each type can play in which competitions.

Squad status breakdown of the various "official" first team squads

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(Note: The Squad Status breakdown of the following first team squads have now been moved to external sub-pages.)

MANCHESTER CITY

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ARSENAL

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CHELSEA

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LIVERPOOL

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MANCHESTER UNITED

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Which players should be included in a team's "Squad statistics" section? (new section)

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NOTE: This section was initially written from the sole perspective of Manchester City. In subsequent reworks and additions to it the text has been generalized as much as possible in order to cover the situation of any EPL club.

Reliability of the information presented on a club's OWS

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So who exactly is a member of a club's "official" first team squad? All of the EPL clubs maintain official web sites (OWS) that contain a web page somewhere listing all of that club's first team players. This web page can in turn be cited as a RS in support of whether any given player is or is not a valid first team player for that club. However, how well each of those web pages is maintained (meaning in terms of how quickly that web page is updated to reflect loan, transfer and debut events, and also how accurate that information is once it has been entered) varies considerably from club to club. Knowing the normal frequency of update to this web page for each club is very important here, because in some cases changes to the first team squad may be reflected within 24-48 hours, while in other cases it may take as long as a few weeks before an existing player is removed or a new player is added.

Club OWS that are sluggish in their updates to the constituency of the "official" first team squad, or that are careless WRT the accuracy of the information that is entered on this (these) web pages, prove to be very troublesome for use as RS citations in support of the respective first team squad that is represented in that club's main Wikipedia article, as well as the Wikipedia article covering the season in question (which is what is of concern here). The rest of this section has to make the assumption that all EPL club OWS make updates to the appropriate web pages that define that club's first team squad in both a TIMELY (i.e., within 24-48 hours) and ACCURATE fashion ... and both of those are very big assumptions, particularly during the periods of the summer and winter transfer windows.

"Fringe players"

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Each EPL club also employs a somewhat different approach in how it goes about determining which of its contracted players are to be included in that club's "official first team squad" (as designated on its OWS). For instance, the Liverpool OWS lists over 50 players as being a member of the LFC first team squad, but some of these players are first team squad players that are on loan to other clubs (and therefore not even available to play for the LFC first team) while many of the other players listed are reserve players that have never played for the LFC first team, with some of those listed players being so far down the "pecking order" for being named for a place on a competitive match day team sheet that they don't even have squad numbers assigned to them. In contrast, although Chelsea have players out on loan to other EPL and top tier European clubs that are clearly first team material (e.g., Michael Mancienne, who is on his third season-long loan stint at Wolves where he is regular first team player) the club does not include such players in the first team squad of players listed on its OWS, nor does it include any players that have never played for the first team.

The approaches of other EPL clubs, such as Manchester United and Manchester City, fall somewhere between these two extremes of being highly inclusive or very selective WRT the makeup of their official first team squad listings on their OWS. Because of this wide disparity of approach across all the different clubs in how each one goes about designating its first team squad, some mechanism is required that will enable the "core players" (viz. the players that are most likely to actually play for that club's first team week in and week out) in any listed squad to be more easily identified; or conversely, that will allow the "fringe players" (viz. the players that are least likely to ever play for that club's first team) to be more easily dismissed. The method that has been adopted here is the latter one.

Consequently, "fringe players" are players that are listed as being members of a club's official first team squad on that club's OWS but who should probably NOT have a listing (viz. table row) assigned to them in the "Squad statistics" section of that club's season article because, in a similar situation to players that are out on loan to other clubs, they are not really members of that club's "effective first team squad". Thus, ANY player in a club's official first team squad that (1) has yet to debut for it, or (2) is a senior player that has not been registered in either of the UEFA or EPL 25-man squads, or (3) is a player to which both (1) and (2) apply, will be considered to be a "fringe player".

So, for example, applying this definition of "fringe player" to the first team squads of the two Manchester clubs prior to the commencement of the January transfer window (when the quoted status of a number of these exemplified players changed) ...

  • Oliver Gill is a "fringe player" because he satisfies criterion (1) above, while Ravel Morrison is not (because his recent 95th minute debut substitution in the League Cup tie against Wolves means that he has now played just over a minute for the first team in a competitive game);
  • Kelvin Etuhu is a "fringe player" (because he satisfies criterion (2) above) while Roque Santa Cruz is not (because, although he is no longer registered in the City UEFA 25-man squad, making him ineligible to play in Europa League ties, he is still registered in the City EPL 25-man squad and thus eligible to play in Premier League fixtures);
  • David González is a "fringe player" (because he satisfies criterion (3) above) while although Gunnar Nielsen is also a "fringe player" it is only because he is not registered in either of City's 25-man squads (and thus only satisfies criterion (2) above).
Note 1: When a player that is out on loan returns back to his parent club he immediately becomes a member of the "effective first team squad" again UNLESS he now satisfies one of criteria (1) through (3) above, in which case he becomes a "fringe player" instead.
Note 2: A player who is considered to be a "fringe player" based on criterion (1) above will cease to be a "fringe player" as soon as he debuts for the first team, while a player who is considered to be a "fringe player" based on criterion (2) above will cease to be a "fringe player" as soon as he becomes a registered member of either of the two 25-man squads. Both of these events have to happen for a player who is considered to be a "fringe player" based on criterion (3) above to similarly cease to be a "fringe player"; one or other of these events will be insufficient in of itself.

Which players should be included?

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The short (and over-simplistic) answer is: All of the "official" first team players (as defined on that club's OWS) LESS any of those players out on loan to other clubs LESS any identified "fringe players" (as defined above). However, one must also distinguish between an ACTIVE season article that covers the current ongoing season and an HISTORIC season article that addresses any of the previous seasons. With the advent of the 25-man squads one also now needs to distinguish between an ACTIVE season article during the pre-season and an ACTIVE season article once the season is actually under way. These three scenarios are each addressed in more detail below.

  • (1) During pre-season and active part of season played during summer transfer window (mid-May to August 31)
The "Squad statistics" section should contain a list of only the first team players that have a serious potential of playing in the upcoming season (i.e., this is the "effective first team squad" as defined above). Thus, in the case of Manchester City, it should contain a list of: All the players listed under the MCFC OWS "Players" tab LESS the players already out on loan (because they will be listed there with an asterisk next to their name to indicate their loan status) LESS all the other players identified as "fringe players" according to criteria (1) through (3) above.
  • (2) During an active season (Sep. 1 to mid-May next year)
The "Squad statistics" section should continue to contain the same list of first team players as in Scenario (1) above, but additionally, it will possibly also include entries for any players not on that original list - such as players that have now completed their loan spells with other clubs (but see Note 1 above), former "fringe players" (see Note 2 above), reserve and/or academy players, and any "loaned-in" players (such as an emergency goalkeeper, e.g., Márton Fülöp). Except for the case of senior players returning from loan spells, who will be included in this section because of their potential for still playing for the first team during the remaining portion of the season, all of the others types of players will be included in this section because they have now actually played for the club at some point during that season.
Consequently, in the case of Manchester City, the "Squad statistics" section should contain a list of: All the players listed under the MCFC OWS "Players" tab LESS all the players still out on loan LESS all the other players identified as "fringe players" PLUS all loaned-in players that have played so far that season PLUS all EDS, academy or former "fringe players" (see Note 2 above) that have played competitively for the first team so far that season.
  • (3) Once the active season is over (mid-May 2011 for current season)
All players with "null records" should now be removed from the PST. But what is a "null record"? Two scenarios need to be considered here. In the first scenario a "null record" will mean any row in the PST that has no data in any column to the right of the "Player Name" column. In the second scenario a "null record" will mean any row in the PST that has no data in any of its "Apps." columns (thus players that have encodings in either of the "Player Eligibility" columns are not automatically discarded in this scenario).
Scenario 1 - players that actually played during the past season
In this scenario, at season's end the "Squad statistics" section will ONLY contain a statistics record (row) for players that have actually played competitively for the club during the course of the season. This may even include players that are not officially part of the club if external players had played for the club on loan agreements.
Scenario 2 - players that potentially could have played during the past season
In this scenario, at season's end, in addition to containing all of the statistics records covered under Scenario 1 above, the "Squad statistics" section will ALSO contain a statistics record for any of the senior players that were registered members of the UEFA or EPL 25-man squads at some point during the season, whether they actually played any games or not.
Prior to the introduction of the "Player Eligibility" columns into the PST, only Scenario 1 really made any sense. If any records remained in the PST at season's end that were not covered by Scenario 1 then this was due either to editor oversight or to the quixotic decisions of editors to arbitrarily include some additional (null) records in the PST for players that potentially could have played during the season, in addition to all the (non-null) records of those players that actually did play. The new "Player Eligibility" columns enable the possibility of Scenario 2, which in turn now allows for that pool of "potential players" to be captured in a more deterministic manner, rather than by such prior capricious means.


Updating the "Squad statistics" tables

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All of the foregoing represents a pretty sound and defensible assessment of the current first team squad of Manchester City (plus, for the sake of comparison, the current first team squads of the "Big 4" EPL clubs) that could be usefully incorporated into the individual season Wikipedia articles for all of those teams. In particular, the TLA encodings of the Squad Status of each of the first team players at those five clubs could be added as a new column to the "Squad statistics" tables that are featured in each of those teams' current season articles. The suggested name for this new column in those respective statistics tables would be "Squad Status". Of course, this whole process can be subsequently repeated for the latest season articles of each team currently playing in the Premier League.

It should be noted that once editorial "consensus" has been initially reached regarding this new information in those tables it will then not change for all subsequent season articles because players do NOT get any younger and they can similarly NOT go back and change their junior playing history. In that respect, this information is actually less volatile / transitory than, say, any team's squad numbers are in the middle of the pre-season. Looking beyond just the current season, the only changes required to any player's designated Squad Status (as just presented above) would be that young players will eventually move from being designated with an 'U21' or 'YTH' status code to being designated with one of the other three senior status codes instead (e.g., that will happen to Vladimir Weiss in season 2011-12 when his new Squad Status code will be 'ACG').

Utilizing the new squad status information going forward

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Going forward, this new Squad Status encoding might possibly being utilized in two further new columns to be added to the "Premier League" and appropriate UEFA competition columns (i.e., the "Champions League" column for Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester United, and the "Europa League" column for Liverpool and Manchester City) of the various "Squad statistics" tables that would indicate which of the players in the respective team squads were eligible to play in that competition (based on their inclusion in the associated registered squad lists that will have been submitted for each of them). Thus, only the appropriate number of 'HGP', 'ACG' and 'FOR' designated players would be indicated as being eligible to play in the respective UEFA and EPL competitions.

The 'ACG' designated players could simply be enumerated as 'HGP' players for the EPL squads (because there is no comparable 'ACG' provision for the EPL), while all the 'YTH' designated players could also just be enumerated as 'U21' players for the EPL squads (because there is similarly no comparable 'YTH' provision for the EPL). Finally, to keep these new "player eligibility" columns as thin as possible, it might also be a good idea to only use the first letter of the players' designated TLA codes in these columns. Thus, for instance, the EPL squad players might be best enumerated H1 through H8 and F1 through F17, while the UEFA squad players might be similarly enumerated A1 - A4, H1 - H4, and F1 - F17, and so on. An example of how this might look and work is shown in the collapsible table below:


Strawmen statistics tables

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A strawman for the proposed changes to the "Squad statistics" table in the current Manchester City season article will look like is shown here. A strawman for what the "Squad statistics" table in the current Manchester United season article might also look like is similarly shown here. Finally, third and fourth strawmen statistics tables reflecting the current Chelsea and Liverpool squads and their respective playing statistics so far this season are likewise shown here and here.

The specific features of all of these strawmen statistics tables to note are:

  • (1) the change of section name from "Squad statistics" to "Playing statistics" - consequently the statistics table residing in this section will be called a "Playing Statistics Table" or PST;
  • (2) the addition of a new "Squad Status" column in the PST containing the TLA codes designated to each first team squad player, and with its header title linked to a collapsible table (thereby enabling that table to be located in a completely different section in the article) that explains the meaning of these new codes;
  • (3) the addition of a "Squad Status Summary" collapsible table (to possibly be located in another new section in the article) that defines the "Squad Status" TLA codes used in the above new column;
  • (4) the addition of a new "Player Eligibility" column (identified "PE") in each of the two sets of competition columns that require registered 25-man squads this season, with their header titles also linked to a collapsible table (thereby enabling that table to be located in a completely different section in the article) that explains the meaning of these new codes;
  • (5) the addition of a "Player Eligibility Enumeration" collapsible table (to possibly be located in another new section in the article) that explains the encoding used in the above two new columns to enumerate which players are eligible to play in each of the respective competitions based on their squad registration status for those competitions;
  • (6) the addition of new RS citations at the foot of the PST to support the veracity of:
- the inclusion in the PST of each of the players plus their stated positions;
- the individual squad numbers assigned to each of the players listed in the PST;
- the various playing statistics recorded for each of the players listed in the PST;
- the inclusion of a code in the PST UEFA competition "PE" column identifying that player as being eligible to play in that season's respective UEFA competition;
- the inclusion of a code in the PST Premier League competition "PE" column identifying that player as being eligible to play in that season's Premier League competition.
  • (7) the addition of new RS citations at the foot of the "Squad Status Summary" collapsible table to support the veracity of the UEFA and EPL terminology utilized in that table;
  • (8) the addition of new RS citations at the foot of the "Player Eligibility Enumeration" collapsible table to support the veracity of the identified player eligibility for the respective UEFA and EPL competitions recorded in the corresponding new "PE" columns of the PST;
  • (9) the addition of new yellow and red card columns to each of the individual sets of competition columns in addition to the two discipline (card) columns that currently exist in the statistics table (because the recognition of accumulated yellow and red cards does NOT necessarily carry over between all of the listed competitions);
  • (10) the addition of a "Totals Footer" at the base of the new statistics table;
  • (11) an accounting for "substitutions off" in addition to "substitutions on" in the various "Appearances" statistics columns;
  • (12) the changing of the default entry in all the statistics table cells from zero to just a blank (null) entry (becaise all those zeros in the table are extremely distracting and they tend to obscure the actual data).


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A strawman for possible other changes that could / should be made to the current season articles of Premier League clubs are shown here in my "sandbox" (situated on the Talk Page of this same account) which illustrate the suggested changes and additions from the perspective of the current Manchester City season article. The specific features of these additional changes to note are:

  • (1) the addition of a new section situated at the end of the article (just above the "See also" and "References" sections) entitled "Explanations and definitions of select terminology" which provides a location for the two new collapsible tables (c.f. bullets (3) and (5) in the section above) and their respective RS citation footers (c.f. bullets (7) and (8) in the section above) to reside so as to keep them from cluttering up the main information focus of the article;
  • (2) the addition of a new section situated directly prior to the previous "Explanations and definitions of select terminology" section entitled "Player registration and competition eligibility" which contains a significant amount of necessary background explanatory text that has been buried in a number of collapsible tables. This new text defines in more appropriate detail the new "Squad Status" terminology, and the various TLA codes assigned to each of the first team players listed in the PST, that are used much earlier in the article;



Strawmen PSTs for some of the first team squads analyzed in the above worksheets

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Strawman PST for the Manchester City F.C. current season article ... (now incorporated into the actual article)

Strawman PST for the Manchester United F.C. current season article

Strawman PST for the Chelsea F.C. current season article

Strawman PST for the Liverpool F.C. current season article



Explanations and definitions of select terminology

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The Squad Status and Player Eligibility codes defined below have been derived from information contained in the UEFA and Premier League rules and regulations (R&R) publications for the 2010-11 season as published on the official web sites of those respective football governing organizations. [1] [2] [3] [4]

Squad Status

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Player Eligibility

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References

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  1. ^ a b c "Regulations of the UEFA Champions League, Season 2010-11 - Section X : Player Eligibility" (PDF). www.uefa.com. (Union of European Football Associations). March 2010. Retrieved 2010-08-16.
  2. ^ a b c "Regulations of the UEFA Europa League, Season 2010-11 - Section X : Player Eligibility" (PDF). www.uefa.com. (Union of European Football Associations). March 2010. Retrieved 2010-08-16.
  3. ^ a b c "Regulations of the UEFA Super Cup, Season 2010 - Section X : Player Eligibility" (PDF). www.uefa.com. (Union of European Football Associations). March 2010. Retrieved 2010-08-16.
  4. ^ a b c "Rules of the Premier League, Season 2010-11 - Section L : Players' Registration" (PDF). www.premierleague.com. (F.A. Premier League). May 2010. Retrieved 2010-08-19.
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