It seems over the past few years, the foreign players in the A-League have dazzled in the world’s greatest sport and made it famous in Australia.
Players like Alessandro Del Piero and Marc Janko have brought the A-League to the attention of the rest of the world, but is five foreign players too much?
Australia recently hosted the Asian Cup in January, in which the Socceroos stole the show in an emphatic and exciting tournament.
But what was also on display was other players from other nations in our confederation, in which most of them play in Asia or the Asian Champions league.
The A-League should embrace the same rule given to the Asian Champions League, the ‘3+1 rule’.
Teams are allowed three foreign players plus one foreign player from an Asian country. This means taking away one foreign player’s spot.
By implementing this rule, it would give other Asian players the chance to play for more Asian clubs and help the A-League teams to familiarise themselves with the competition.
And also to not crop an important foreign player which detracts from their performance.
Take Sydney FC for example. They have now filled their five foreign spots with Miloš Ninkovic, Miloš Dimitrijevic, Filip Holosko, Jacques Faty and Mickaël Tavares.
Three of these players are eligible to play, but the other two aren’t, because none of them are from an Asian country.
This means that two experienced players will not be able to play in the Champions League. This could hurt their performance in the competition.
It would give the A-League an opportunity to embrace the confederation it is in and bring in other Asia-based players. We saw it from Western Sydney with Yusuke Tanaka and Yojiro Takahagi and the Newcastle Jets with Li Ki-je.
As the Whole of Football plan released earlier this year states, “we want football to be the largest and most popular sports in Australia”
Asia is the future of football, and is quickly becoming one of the game’s most prominent areas. With a large majority of the world’s population and participation rates, it’s no wonder.
This brings into question, should we drop one foreign spot and fill one with a player from an Asian country?
I’d like to hear your thoughts on this topic, one of the most frequently debated of the past few months.
144
Roar Guru
I like to think it helped the wanderers but did it really? i think it was also incorporated in with Newcastle Jets with Li-Ki Je.
Jeff Williamson
Roar Pro
We should definitely have one Asian visa spot. Makes a big difference for Asian Champions League. Definitely helped the Wanderers.
Lionheart
Guest
Attendance figures at last year's Asia Cup would suggest that an Asian player would help increase A League attendance, and help with TV rights to Asia too. Plus the ACL bonus you mention. I think some of our clubs and coaches are Euro snobs.
Brendo
Guest
100% agree Fuss, 4+1 would be ideal. Also reducing by 1 Foreign Spot adds 10 extra Australians to the total player pool. Adding 1 team adds around 15 Australians. Better to add more teams than reduce Foreign places.
144
Roar Guru
it's a very good point you make about the squad sizes, but would it work? because teams who have the money to fill that cap with better players, then there are teams like Wellington and Newcastle who struggle to find foreigners while also finding players to fill the squad.
bryan
Guest
Gee,I hate it when I agree with you,Fuss! :)
Tom
Guest
I strongly agree with having the 3+1 rule. What is the point of Sydney FC sitting out two of their top players in the champions league? On the topic i suppose, the A-League should increase the squad size to 30 players to match the AFC Champions League. The salary cap should then increase to $3 000 000 to accommodate for the extra 4 players. Then to increase payments on Australians and to add more quality Australians to the league all foreigners should be exempt from the cap.
144
Roar Guru
8 is way too much, surely in our early years we should be cropping Australian players as much as possible, it wouldn't be there for players like Mooy or Antonis who have had interest form overseas. Also if you do this, Does this affect the asian champions league performance for the teams that qualify with the 3+1 rule. And most importantly, what about the salary cap?
144
Roar Guru
That's a great idea but we also want to crop more aussie players into the league, would want us to become like the epl where over 65% of the league is foreign. But then again they are the biggest league in the world, could the a-league follow that same path?
144
Roar Guru
Nice to hear all of your comments and thoughts on the topic, its great to see we can engage in these arguments for our league
Midfielder
Guest
off topic but interesting... From the head of MV http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/football/melbourne-victory-ceo-says-having-more-big-name-friendlies-in-australia-should-entice-people-to-go-to-a-league-games/story-fnk6pqhd-1227465365428 Part of the article... “But if you play that long game, the established leagues — the AFL and NRL — are nearly six generations old, if you call a generation 25 years. The A-League and its clubs aren’t even half a generation old yet and look how far we’ve already come.”
melbourneterrace
Guest
Ridiculous argument, it's not well documented and you have made that up. The English Football team have been dreadful long before the EPL or foreign transfers were a thing. Anyone who knows anything about English football knows that the lack of formally educated coaches and prehistoric youth development techniques in England is absolutely to blame for the lack of truly world class english players coming through.
Johhno
Guest
juan England has made very WCup since france 98. They have been knocked out of a few on penalties,same with Euros. England have 4 divisions, plenty of the best english players still get a chance.
juan dos
Guest
And do you hope our national team results mirror England's too? It's pretty well documented that the EPL has been bad for English player development, I'd much rather our league look towards the Bundesliga as a top league to aspire to be like. Of the big four (Serie A, La Liga, Premier League, Bundesliga) it's pretty obvious which one is the best run.
nickoldschool
Roar Guru
I think that what we have now is about right. I believe that increasing the number of foreigners would have a limited impact anyway as on one hand most clubs cant afford more quality players considering the salary cap and their finances and on top of that the financial demands of those 'quality players' are well above what they would earn here. So at 100k a year i think aussie players do match foreigners. Then perhaps you would have clubs gambling on a young Brazilian or african but i'd rather have them look at home and 'gamble' on their home made product than be lazy, euro/southam/african snob and look elsewhere. The day the A league finances outweigh the local production then ok increase the number of imports but for now i think its adequate. The Asian player thing is a good idea and it shoud be adopted by clubs even if there is no obligation imo.
Waz
Guest
There's no logic to reducing it now, especially with 2-4 more clubs on the agenda over the next ten years. A move to 4+1 makes sense and when the timing is right 3+1 to match AFC rules seems to be common sense. But for now leave if at five, where there is potential for improvement is in a centralised scouting model as they do in the MLS to increase the quality of new players recruited. We've had s few duffs over the years.
RBBAnonymous
Guest
The gap is narrowing which is what we want. I think that a lot of our domestic players are a little undervalued to be fair. We still have this mentality that if you haven't tried Europe you are either afraid or not that good. We have enough good coaches in the league to be able to start developing a decent player especially with regards to the level of salary. Plenty of bang for the buck.
nordster
Guest
I guess it all hinges on whether it will make the playing field more level? ;) Overseas talent makes such a difference that under the current equalisation philosophy of the league, it would be better to reduce these x-factor, exciting elements...in favour of 'competitive balance'.... ;) ;) ;) :(
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
Definitely NO to more foreigners. Not fussed with less, but happy to remain with the current 5 maximum. Ideally I'd like a 4+1 Rule: Maximum 5 foreigners, but 1 must be from the AFC (OFC for NIX). I want my local Australian football league to feature the best Australian talent, with help from a few undervalued foreign gems. When I look at overseas football leagues, I much preferred watching English top club football & European top club football when there were few foreigners in the teams. When you look at the 1979 European Cup final 2 things stand out: 1. The Finale was Nottingham Forest vs Malmo - 2 clubs that will NEVER again be able to achieve that lofty high.. unless some billionaire buys the club 2. Forest did not have a single player from outside England & Scotland. Malmo did not have a single player from outside Sweden It would be great if every football league had restrictions on foreigners. Every competition would be more vibrant & so many of the world's best footballers wouldn't be sitting on the bench every week.
fadida
Guest
Tend to agree. Providing the players brought in are better than those available domestically