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Explained: Why Phil Foden and Liam Delap are in Manchester City's Champions League B List
Last week, Manchester City were drawn into Champions League Group A alongside last season's semi-final opponents Paris Saint-Germain, Bundesliga runners up RB Leipzig, and Belgian champions Club Brugge.
Today, City have revealed their submitted 21-man List A squad for this season's European campaign, and like every year since his emergence, Phil Foden's name is not there, leading to the same 'where's Phil?' question.
This year, there's even more confusion amongst some fans as they've noticed that 17-year old Romeo Lavia has been listed in the club's List A as you'd assume he'd take a place on List B.
Here's an explanation.
LIST A & B
Uefa rules stipulate that no club can have more than 25 players on List A during the season, with at least two of the players being goalkeepers, and as a minimum, 8 of the 25 places are reserved for 'locally trained players' – but if a club have fewer than 8 locally trained players in their squad, the maximum number of players on List A is reduced accordingly.
Uefa rules state that a player may be registered on List B if he is born on, or after, January 1st 2000 and has been eligible to play for the club concerned for any uninterrupted period of two years since his 15th birthday by the time he is registered with Uefa, with players aged 16 allowed to be submitted if they have been registered with the club for the previous two years without interruption.
Clubs are allowed to register an unlimited number of players on List B during the season but must ensure that the list is submitted no later than 24:00 CET the night before a match.
Highly regarded academy holding midfielder Romeo Lavia is therefore ineligible for List B as he has only been at the club for one year after joining from Anderlecht in July 2020 – this is why he would have to be placed on List A to feature in the Champions League group stage this season.
In June, we covered information from Mike McGrath of The Telegraph, who reported that Pep Guardiola was giving serious consideration to having Lavia around his first-team squad to provide backup to his midfielders.
Much has been made of Lavia's immense potential, with the player impressing coaches around the club along with viewers of academy football and his inclusion in Guardiola's List A only emphasises how highly rated the young prospect is.
Lavia will be aiming to replicate the strides Phil Foden has made from the academy into the Catalan's first team – the England international is not on List A as he can be placed on List B, and as aforementioned, this has been the case with Foden for a few years now.
Having joined the club in 2019, Liam Delap was ineligible for List B last term and was not included in Guardiola's List A. However, this season, the 18-year-old striker, who has impressed everyone with his strides in the youth game, can be included in List B.
List A: Nathan Ake, Joao Cancelo, Scott Carson, Kevin De Bruyne, Ederson, Ruben Dias, Jack Grealish, Ilkay Gundogan, Rodrigo, Gabriel Jesus, Aymeric Laporte, Romeo Lavia, Riyad Mahrez, Bernardo Silva, Fernandinho, Zack Steffen, Raheem Sterling, John Stones, Ferran Torres, Kyle Walker, Oleksandr Zinchenko.
GROUP STAGE FIXTURES & DATES
City vs. RB Leipzig: 15th September 8 pm BST
PSG vs. City: 28th September 8 pm BST
Club Brugge vs. City: 19th October 5:45 pm BST
City vs. Club Brugge: 3rd November 8 pm GMT
City vs. PSG: 24th November 8 pm GMT
RB Leipzig vs. City: 7th December 5:45 pm GMT
Written by: @NA1907_
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