FIFA President Sepp Blatter has proposed for a new rule in which European Union clubs are no longer allowed to field more than 5 non-local players. (For example, Arsenal FC is only allowed to field at most 5 non-English players). This proposal has shaken the European Union footballing world, and this proposal is expected to make as huge if not bigger impact on football as the famous “Bosman” ruling.
Let us take one league, the English Premier League. Upon hearing about this proposal, many young English players would be delighted as they would be having more opportunities to grace the field week in week out with their teams and possibly getting into the limelight and be a superstar. The England National Team manager will also be delighted as more talents will mean more choices of players to choose from.
Meanwhile, top clubs in the league, especially Arsenal will lament on this rule as they have little or no English players in their squads. One notable example here is of course Arsenal. Their first team and even their reserves squad has very little number of English players. To compound this, the few English players in Arsenal’s team are actually fringe players with little or no potential to be world class players competent enough to compete in the highest level.
In my personal opinion, this proposal will not materialize, at least in the short run due to fierce challenges by the top clubs, and especially if G-14, the organization of 18 top clubs in Europe are already come into the fray, it will be a draggy and long legal battle.
However, we don’t know what might happen in the long run. Perhaps this will still materialize, albeit to the expense of the popularity of Sepp Blatter among Europe’s top clubs. All of us know that the charismatic and colorful president has taken such stances before, most notably in the introduction of “Home-grown rule” in the Champions League squads two years ago (in which this rule was also lamented upon by top clubs).
In any case, football fans like us can only keep our fingers crossed so that whatever policies or proposals are implemented into the beautiful game, the entertainment value and fair play elements won’t be eroded.
Viva la Futbol!
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