Arsenal have submitted their 25-man squad which will compete in the Europa League this season – but all is not what it seems.
At first glance it appears that Unai Emery has left out a number of the club’s best young talent from a competition which saw Arsene Wenger blood several youngsters last season.
But the fact that the likes of Maitland-Niles, Smith-Rowe and Nketiah are not included is because they can be named on the club’s B list, as they fall under certain UEFA Requirements.
UEFA rules state: UEFA rules state that: “A player may be registered on List B if he is born on, or after, 1 January 1997 and has been eligible to play for the club concerned for any uninterrupted period of two years since his 15th birthday (players aged 16 may be submitted if they have been registered with the club for the previous two years). Clubs are entitled to register an unlimited number of players on List B during the season, but the list must be submitted by no later than 24:00CET the day before a match.”
Arsenal will kick start their Europa League Campaign against Vorskla Poltova on Thursday. Unai Emery has won the competition three time while managing Sevilla.
Injured duo Sead Kolasinac and Laurent Koscielny are both named on the 25-man list, despite both not being due back to training until October and November respectively.
Emery has named four goalkeepers in his squad, with Macedonia under-21 international Deyan Illiev joining Petr Cech, Bernd Leno and Emiliano Martinez.