FIFA’s 6+5 rule has been overwhelmingly approved by 155 of the organisation’s member nations, but is it really in the interest of the world game?
The 6+5 rule is designed to restore the national identity in football clubs which have a high number of foreign players in the squad while also reducing the gap between the big and small clubs.
The new rule allows six home grown players and a maximum of five foreigners in club football teams.
From 1992-2007 BBC sport calculated the starting eleven of each team on the first weekend of the EPL season.
The results showed that in 1992 over 180 players were of English descent with just a little over 20 being foreign players.
In 2007 only 80 of the players were English and over 120 being of foreign blood.
Chelsea became the first Premier League side to field an entirely foreign starting line up (December 1999) and on 14 February 2005 Arsenal were the first to name a completely foreign 16 man squad for a match.
And if you look in the European leagues today you will find many of the well known stars are foreign. Cristiano Ronaldo plays in England but is of Portuguese decent, same with Fernando Torres (Spain), Robin Van Persie (Dutch) and Robinho (Brazil) just to name a few, the list goes on throughout Europe and also the rest of the world.
The 6+5 will impact football severely.
Why try and change something that doesn’t need changing?
Greg Russell
Roar Guru
jimbo is correct that the 6+5 rule is absurd if it applies only to starting XI, because then one could easily change to 8 foreigners after making substitutions. For this reason I assume that the 6+5 rule applies to the on-field XI at all times. For example, if you start with 5 foreigners, then you will only be able to replace a local player with a local player. This may lead to some interesting looking substitution benches for XIs with 5 foreigners, i.e., all local players or essentially two contingents of substitutes, one of local players (for if local players are taken off) and one of foreigners.
jimbo
Guest
Should it be 9+5 or 8+6 if you count the 3 subs? What if they start with 6 Englishmen and then substitute them for 3 foreigners bringing the equation to 3+8? This restriction is a form of salary cap, because generally foreign players are more in demand and cost more, otherwise you wouldn't go through all the trouble to bring them over or the labour laws to get them. English players are generally cheaper, so it should help bring down salaries (and costs) of the Euro leagues.
Matthew Wilson
Roar Pro
Good Point Rellum however as you said about Spain and Turkey... Real Madrid has a lot of Dutch in their team, Barcelona has Messi (Argentina), Henry (French) and Turkey has a lot of Brazilian influence and even Harry Kewell who needs no introduction.
Rellum
Guest
The only people who seem to have an issue with this rule are the fans of the EPL, which from your avatar wilswils , I will assume you are one. This rule will bring back to prominence leagues like the Erdevise and ligue 1 as well as help countries develop their own talent. No one in Brazil or Argentina are complaining. No one in Spain or Turkey are complaining. Yes the big clubs will still buy the best players, but I would like to see this rule combined with strict commercial restrictions similar to what the French league has, and exceptions to the 6 + 5 rule for foreign players who have been in a clubs first squad for at least 8 years.
Greg Russell
Roar Guru
I agree that the 6+5 rule is misguided. First let me say that 80 English players over 20 starting XIs is an average of 4 per side. This only needs to be increased by 2 to conform (just!) with the 6+5 rule. This is not as much as many people would think. But of course the real change will come at the big clubs, where many English players will need to be added to starting XIs. This is no doubt why FIFA thinks there will be a major levelling out. However people at the big clubs have said that all this will do is force them to stockpile local (English in the case of EPL) talent. In other words, in the EPL the big 4 teams will simply buy up almost all of the best 40 English players between them, leaving the dregs to the rest. So there will be a little bit of levelling out, but not very much. Further, the English game will be damaged, because many of the best English players will sit idle on the benches of the big four (yes, I know this already happens, but it will become even worse), while at lower ranked EPL clubs there will be English players getting a run who otherwise would only get to play in the Championship. The bottom line is that the only way to equalize talent is to have a salary cap. Whilever there is such great disparity in the spending power of clubs, those with the money will be able to hoard the talent, whatever the regulations. Thus the 6+5 rule is misguided.