The FA chairman, Greg Dyke, explains the changes he wants Premier League clubs to implement which he believes will give homegrown players more opportunities and boost England’s chances of winning the World Cup in Qatar

When Roy Hodgson sat down to draw up the squad for England’s upcoming games last week, there was one name he could not ignore. So ferociously has Harry Kane declared himself on the Premier League stage this season that he left the manager no choice. If he can deliver even half of what he’s capable of for England, then we are in for a treat.

But the question that needs to be asked is how many other Harry Kanes are there in the academies of English football who cannot get a first-team game? Too few young homegrown talents such as Kane are being given the opportunity to show managers what they can do. And without a different approach in the English game, there is a good chance that is not going to change in the future.

In recent decades, there has been a constant and steady decline in the number of young homegrown players playing for top sides in the English leagues.

This season, only 22% of the players starting matches in the top four teams in the Premier League are qualified to play for England. Just two years ago that figure was 28%. For nine Premier League clubs, it has been three seasons or more since an academy player became a first-team regular.

These are just numbers, but the problem they underline is a real one: we are simply not giving young domestic talent sufficient opportunities at the highest level of English football.

This matters for two reasons. The first is that we have a duty to nurture and cultivate all talent in this country. This is no less true in football than it is in the arts, physics and maths and real credit should go to the Premier League and their clubs for significantly improving the academy system in recent years. The trouble is that talent is rarely getting through to the first team.

In 2010 England’s Under-17s won the European championship; but only four of the team have since played more than 20 Premier League games. The Spanish team that we beat have produced twice that number for La Liga. The England team won the Under-17 tournament again last year. How many of that squad will make it through the system in England? History tells us it is getting harder not easier.

The second problem is the diminishing pool of players from which we are able to choose the national team. In the 2013-14 season, just 23 English players were playing Champions League football – the elite level of the club game which supplies most of the major international sides. This compared with 78 Spaniards, 55 Germans and even 51 Brazilians.

If we want to maintain a national side capable of competing against the world’s best, we need change. The FA exists to protect and promote the interests of English football at all levels. That makes this problem our problem, and we take our role very seriously.

We have made a good start. In recent years we have been working in partnership with the Premier League and the Football League across a range of initiatives: from training up thousands of new coaches to the Elite Player Performance Plan (EPPP) already revolutionising academies up and down the country, to our £230m investment in building grassroots facilities.

This coordinated effort will further radically improve the pipeline of young talent coming through the system at all ages. But there is one more piece of the puzzle. What is clear from the research conducted by the England Commission is that even where homegrown talent exists, players are not being given the opportunity to step up to senior football between the crucial ages of 18 to 21.

Much like great actors or musicians, great footballers need a stage. The Premier League is the best league in the world, and in 23 years since its inception it has played host to the best of the best. But it is also one of the most competitive sporting environments in the world, with a huge amount of pressure placed on managers. It is inevitable in this context that managers and owners have often turned to experienced overseas players, rather than giving opportunities to talent from their academies.

That is why we are proposing changes that will boost opportunities for homegrown players.

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First, we want to raise the existing requirements on homegrown players in Premier League squads, so that by 2020 12 of a 25-man squad will be homegrown, rather than the eight it is today, with at least two players having come through the academy of the club they play for.

Second, we think we should close the loophole in the existing definition, so that in the future homegrown means homegrown. Players will have to have played three seasons with English clubs under the age of 18, rather than the current 21. Cesc Fàbregas is an outstanding player who is an asset to English football, but he is clearly a proud graduate of the Barcelona academy and should never have qualified as homegrown, which he did by joining Arsenal at the age of 16.

These changes would mean more opportunities for young homegrown players, simple as that. It would mean more of the kind of breakthrough moments that gave Kane and Wayne Rooney their very first Premier League platform. It would mean stronger incentives for investment in club-trained talent. And it would mean fewer “ordinary” players from abroad taking places that belong to young homegrown talent.

If these proposals are eventually adopted, together with the investment in coaching, facilities and academies already being undertaken, the impact on opportunities for young talent within the English football ecosystem could be profound.

With these changes and a little bit of luck, we can fulfil my public ambition for England to win the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. But we will only have a chance of success if we fix the pipeline problem.

Greg Dyke is the chairman of the Football Association