I think it would be nice to use the same registration rules as UEFA do in real life.
Currently, in FM22 you have to include at least 8 home grown players and at least 4 of those have to be trained by the club.
The UEFA rules actually stipulate that you register two lists of players and the home grown rules are slightly different.
Firstly, you must submit List A. List A can contain up to 25 players, of which at least 8 must be ‘locally trained’. This list can be decremented accordingly if you are unable to register 8 ‘locally trained’ players.
A ‘locally trained’ player refers to either a player on your club’s books or another club’s books from the same football association. The player must have spent at least 3 years on these books between the ages of 15 and 21.
The second list, List B, is submitted at a later date and can contain players born after 2000, and has been eligible to play for the club for an uninterrupted period at least two years.
Implementing the above functionality into the registration rules in FM would allow more flexibility when it comes to squad building.
It would eradicate the need to purchase players trained by the club for registration purposes. The UEFA rules do not stipulate that you must have at least 4 players trained by the club, they simply imply that the player must fit the ‘locally trained’ criteria, which means the player can be trained in the nation or by the club.
Also, when submitting players for List A, the UEFA rules allow you to loan the player out for playing experience whilst also building up their eligibility criteria. Often in FM, the player’s potential is wasted rotting in the under 23’s whilst you wait for their eligibility criteria to build.
I often thought how teams got away with this because I assumed FM’s rules were the same as UEFA’s and I couldn’t recall 8 home grown players from most Champions League squads in recent times. Obviously, now I understand they’ll often register fewer players as they can’t fulfil the ‘locally trained’ player criteria.
Here is a link to the UEFA registration information I used as source material, https://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/news/026c-12ed33745f21-a63cc70aaed6-1000--champions-league-group-stage-squads-player-registration-deadlin/
