pretty sure germany don't have any sort of restrictions, maybe just the amount of non europeans. same with italy. germany have done alright internationally.
the fa can say all they want, but we're seeing where any decent prospect, whether english or not, are usually swallowed up by the big clubs. many of the best english youngsters right now are at either city, united, liverpool, arsenal or chelsea. there's a smattering through the other teams but those 5 are near the top of all the youth competitions, and there's plenty of them. clubs like southampton are much better at developing them, but as pelle pointed out when we played them, they can play these guys earlier cos they're not challenging for a title, or they're not aiming to go deep into the champions league. i don't see how changing the current system would change anything.