HG Players?????

Can someone explain the HG Player Thing (Orange and Blue) thing!

I understand that players can obtain citizenship after they have been in the country for x amount of days, however when playing in the Champions League are they classed as a foreigner or not (e.g. orange). Also say you have Messi playing, he is from Argentina, however he was less then 15 when he joined Barcelona! When he plays for Barcelona in the Champions League is he HG (Blue) because he has young when he joined and he has Spanish Citizenship)!

PLEASE COULD SOMEONE EXPLAIN !!!!

WHAT IS CLASSED AS HG BLUE

There are two types of Homegrown as far as I am aware.

1.) Firstly there are players born in the country you are playing in.

2.) Secondly there are players that have trained for a number of years in your country.

You must have a certain number of each in your squad for certain competitions.

It is to do with time at the club/country before the age of 21. They need to play for 3 years before the age of 21 to qualify for the 'home-grown' but i'm not sure whether time out on loan away from a club counts towards the time.

For a player to be club homegrown you need to have signed them before they turn 18 (Though on FM09 it looks like as long as they are 18 or under at the end of the season they still count) and after three years at your club they'll turn homegrown. Domestic loans don't affect Homegrown status.

In FM09 you can select the Homegrown view in the club screen and it will tell you whether the player is homegrown or when they are due to be homegrown. (In my game I have to be on the first team squad screen to get the correct details, if I go into my reserves it tells me the wrong info, but going into the first team and selecting the reserve filter gives me the correct info).