Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain have been informed by governing body UEFA that they must include five and not eight homegrown players in their Champions League squads for next season.
Premier League champions City and Ligue 1 winners PSG were hit with heavy fines and restrictions over their breach of financial fair-play rules put into place by UEFA president Michel Platini.
The two big spending European giants received fines of 60 million euros ($82 million, £49 million) and had their Champions League squads reduced to 21 while Turkish trio Buraspor, Galatasaray and Trabzonspor, Russian sides Zenit St Petersburg, Anzhi Makhachkala and Rubin Kazan, and Levski Sofia from Bulgaria were also penalised.
Initially hit with a further penalty of having eight homegrown players in their European squads for next season, UEFA have now reconsidered.
“Should a club be entitled to register a maximum number of 21 players on the A list, the minimum number of places exclusively reserved for ‘locally trained players’ shall be five instead of eight, of which a maximum of four shall be ‘association-trained'” read a UEFA statement.
“Should a club be entitled to register a maximum number of 22 players on the A list, the minimum number of places exclusively reserved for ‘locally trained players’ shall be six instead of eight, of which a maximum of four shall be ‘association-trained,” continued UEFA.
England ‘keeper Joe Hart, midfielder Jack Rodwell, French defender Gael Clichy and Dedryck Boyata were all listed in last season’s list of homegrown players while coach Manuel Pellegrini is expected to release Joleon Lescott, Micah Richard and James Milner who were also included in their previous Champions League squad.