Ange Postecoglou Tottenham Hotspur Spurs Stadium
Tottenham Hotspur Spurs Stadium

Spurs kick off their Champions League campaign this week and before their first group game, they have been handed a massive boost in terms of their squad selection.

Earlier, Welsh players had to be counted as foreign players in European competitions but now UEFA has made a change to this old rule, as per The Standard.

Now, if a Welsh player has trained with clubs in the English league system then they can be registered as ‘homegrown’ players in European competitions.

This new rule is a big boost for Antonio Conte because now defender Ben Davies can be registered as ‘association-trained’ because he was part of the Swansea academy.

Clubs can have a maximum of 25 members in their European squad and out of them, eight have to be homegrown. In this rule, there have been many occasions when managers have had to leave out an overseas player in order to fulfil the quota of eight players.

This season, Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has chosen to keep Naby Keita out of his 25-man Champions League squad.

Which this new rule help Spurs this season?

The fact that Ben Davies can be registered as home-grown is a big plus for the Spurs boss because he can now accommodate every overseas player.

This will massively help them towards the later stages of the group games when the squad depth of every team will come into play.

Tottenham have been pitted alongside Sporting, Marseille and Eintracht Frankfurt which is a very tricky group. There’s every chance that the fate of these four teams will be decided in the final group game and if that happens then rotations will turn out to be a key factor for Antonio Conte.

Spurs kick off their UCL campaign on Wednesday night when they welcome French side Marseille to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Read: Here’s how Tottenham could line up in their UCL clash vs Marseille.