Arsene Wenger has publicly slammed the new rules that mean Premier League teams have to work with a squad of 25 players, at least eight of which must be ‘home grown’.

And I agree with him that the rule is flawed.

However, unlike the Arsenal boss my problem with the rule is that I don’t think it goes anything like far enough towards addressing the real problem – the lack of English players in the English league.

Under the new guidelines, which are effective from this season, at the end of each transfer window teams will have to submit a squad list which will remain in place until the next window.

However – and this is the first loophole – this only applies to players over the age of 21. So in reality, you are not restricting the team to 25 players but to 25 players plus an unlimited number of youngsters.

But the real problem lies in the ‘home grown’ part of the rule, because in order to qualify for this, a player only needs to have been with a club for three seasons, or 36 months before his 21st birthday.

And that, to me, doesn’t go anywhere near far enough. At the very least it should – and I think England’s dismal display at the World Cup is clear evidence of this – be eight players who qualify for the English national team.

The way things are set up now, a player like Cesc Fabregas qualifies as home grown despite the fact that he was born in Spain, groomed by Barcelona and already plays internationally for his home nation.

That’s about as home grown as the cornflakes you had for breakfast.

This whole rule change smacks of an attempt by the Premiership to appease the Football Association and disgruntled England fans without actually doing anything substantial.

True, at face value it does appear to improve the situation of young English players who are struggling to get into the top sides because of the foreign stars in their way.

But, when you scratch away the surface of the rules and find out exactly what defines ‘home grown’, the reality is that very little will actually change. Except, maybe, for increased bureaucracy and paperwork.

I’m not a Sepp Blatter fan. Never have been and never will be. But I have to admit that his six-plus-five policy, which would mean clubs have to start games with at least six players that can play for the country’s national team, was the way forward.

Of course, forgetting that it moves into questionable territory in terms of European Union law, this would also mean that the top clubs cannot buy all the big name foreign stars they desperately want. And that is why it was doomed to failure, irrespective of the EU.

As it stands now English players, playing in England for English clubs, have an absolute mountain to climb just to get the opportunity to make their mark. The new rules will not change that situation very much. If anything, what it will do is encourage big clubs to sign foreign players at an even younger age.

In my opinion, as an England fan who suffered huge disappointment once again this summer, all these new rules do is pay lip service to the problem.

What I want to see is rules that actually solve it.

Boot them out

I am genuinely disturbed by recent developments in North Korea.

Following their dismal showing in South Africa, the country’s rulers decided that action should be taken, which is fair enough and totally understandable. Any nation that saw their team lose all three games, concede 12 goals and score just one would want to address the problem.

But that is where the similarity with a sane country ends. Instead of just firing their manager and taking time to contemplate what went wrong, the North Korean dictators turned the process into a witch-hunt.

Manager Kim Jong-Hun and his players were summoned before a crowd of 400 government officials and journalists for a session of public humiliation. The players were made to individually criticise their manager before Kim Jong-Hun was, unbelievably, sent away to do hard labour on a building site.

I’m sorry, but those are not the actions of a civilised nation. They are totally and utterly unacceptable, and clear evidence that North Korea, under its current regime, has no place in the international football community.

I appreciate that it will hurt the innocent, already oppressed and suffering people of the country. But Fifa has to act now and give North Korea an indefinite ban from international football.

It has been long established that North Korea, thanks to its erratic leadership, has no place on the world stage. However, I think we were all prepared to turn a blind eye when it came to football because excluding the nation from the sport would mostly hurt the average man in the street.

Well, that blind eye must now be opened.

A ban from football will not bring about regime change. It won’t bring about a sudden introduction of democracy, greater freedom of speech or genuine civil liberties.

But it would at least allow the civilised world to know they are not endorsing barbaric behaviour.

And we’re off!

There are quite a lot of negatives to supporting a Championship team: you rarely get to see them on television, they don’t sign superstar players, and the only realistic prize on offer is promotion.

But there is at least one positive, one small advantage we have over supporters of Premiership big boys – our season gets underway a whole week earlier.

While you fans of teams like Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United still have another week of heel kicking to go before the proper stuff starts, we lesser mortals finally got our teeth stuck into some league action yesterday.

And Sheffield United get their season rolling this afternoon with a televised trip to beaten play-off finalists Cardiff City, a club where Peter Ridsdale is once again working his financial magic.

It seems to me like he is determined to prove that his ruining of Leeds was not just a flash in the pan but something he can readily repeat at any club that dares to hire him. The grim reaper of the football boardroom.

So, assuming Cardiff City survive that long, will they be among the teams that end the season basking in the glory and riches of promotion to the Premier League? I don’t think so.

Middlesbrough are apparently everyone’s favourites to win the Championship this season, although I have my doubts. I suppose little Gordon Strachan is a decent manager and they do have a bit of money to spend, but personally I am going for Nottingham Forest, Burnley and Queen’s Park Rangers as my main bets, with Reading, Ipswich and Leicester City as outsiders.

What about the Blades then? Well, at the risk of jinxing them I won’t blow that particular trumpet too loudly. But they have made some good signings, seem to be gelling well in pre-season, and may, just may, be in with a decent shout.

We will just have to wait and see how the cookie crumbles. Roll on this afternoon.

Your say

Chris Borg, e-mail:

“I have been following Formula One for the past couple of decades and I was horrified by the antics of Michael Schumacher, whose blatant move on Rubens Barri-chello could have had horrific consequences.

“We have to thank God, because if the two cars had caught wheels it would have been a totally different story.

“Most of the world press condemned Schumacher’s actions as deplorable. I believe the punishment that was dished out to him was too lenient, and felt he should have been black flagged.

“But the race stewards did not have enough time to view the videos as the incident happened towards the end of the race. However, at Spa he will have to drop 10 places from his qualifying position.

“His comeback has not been great, as he has been out-qualified by his teammate Nico Rosberg. Where does he go from here I wonder? Retirement once again?”

sportscolumnist@timesofmalta.com