I’m going to follow last night’s Hite-fueled rant about football with a clip from this week’s Economist, which talks about the fact that while the Premier League has clearly established itself as…well, what it’s name indicates — the premier football league — it’s also a very international league.
The article notes that in the recent Champions Cup final in Russia 12 of the 22 starting players from Chelsea and Manchester United were from other countries.
While I think most of us would say that’s great, but the top brass of FIFA (including president Sepp Blatter) sure doesn’t. The organization has been investigating leagal ways to enforce foreign player quotas.
From The Indenpendent:
The plan aims to force clubs by 2012 to start games with at least six home-grown players, and limit the number of foreign players to five. Blatter also wants other sports federations to join the cause. “The congress shall request the Fifa and Uefa presidents together with the world of sport, including the IOC [International Olympic Committee] to explore all means within the limits of law to implement this rule,” he said.
The proposal aims to restore “national identity” to club teams while reducing the drain of players from other continents. Limits on the number of EU players in European leagues were successfully challenged under the 1995 Bosman ruling. But Blatter said having at least six players who are eligible to play for a country’s national team would motivate young footballers.
When I was interviewed for that JoongAng article one of the things we talked about is the foreign player requirement in Korean baseball, which I think is outdated and harkens back to an age when Korean teams needed to limit the contributions of foreign players who were in most cases bigger, faster and stronger than all but the very best Korean players.
Some Koreans would like to get rid of foreign players alltogether. I know there are occasional calls in the Japanese league for this as well. This is also stupid and xenophobic. My reccomendation was to add two foreign player requirements — two Asian player slots, forcing Korean teams to include players from Japan, Taiwan and China on their teams. There are currently zero players from either country in Korea. Why?
But as the Economist notes, legally enforcing foreign player requirements in the regional football leagues seems like a step backwards. If teams want local players they should be spending their money in ways to get them — practice facilities, camps, whatever.
16 responses so far ↓
1 baekgom84 // May 28, 2008 at 11:54 am
Football is one of the many sports I follow, and I’m actually a supporter of the foreign player limits for the European leagues, especially in England. It’s at the point where teams are occasionally fielding a side with eleven foreign players, and while I think we all agree that the presence of foreign players are good for the game, how would you feel if an MLB team fielded 9/10 players without a single American representative? I personally feel that you lose a degree of national identity. In the case of England, this situation has occured because talented English players are worth 3-4 times as much as similarly talented players from other countries. I don’t know why this is but I suspect it’s to do with marketing reasons, which is why a player like Beckham commands such an astronomical price tag.
As for no Japanese/Taiwanese players in Korea, I asked this myself on the myKBO forums and someone suggested that it was due to contractual reasons - American minor league players were simply much less pain-free to acquire. I’d love to see more interaction between the Asian leagues though.
2 simon // May 28, 2008 at 12:52 pm
The Asia Ice Hockey League has a rule where the players with the 3 nationalities of the league (Japanese, Korean, and Chinese) do not count against the import limit. It’s a great idea, hasn’t been fully utilized yet, but there have been some player movements between Korea and Japan thanks to this rule.
Maybe something not that drastic, but adopting 1 or 2 Asian player limit in addition to its import limit in NPB, KBO, and CPBL would do more for the development of Asian baseball. As it is currently, Japanese teams still willingly use up their import quotas on Korean and Taiwanese players, so that’s good. I know the odd Japanese player has played in Taiwan and Korea. How is the player movement situation between Taiwan and Korea?
3 brent // May 28, 2008 at 12:53 pm
Why the leagues aren’t joined up better to fuel the competition and excitement is “mind-bottling”.
4 jackson // May 28, 2008 at 1:16 pm
brent
I’m all over that one. Check the Taipei Times in the next week. I’m totally in agreement with you. It’s so glaringly obvious they need to fuse those 3 leagues.
soon….
5 Shinsano // May 28, 2008 at 1:22 pm
Japanese baseball is ahead of the game (seems weird to say) by having a few Koreans and a number of Taiwanese players, but the other two leagues are clueless to this point (I’m not aware of any Japanese or Korean players in the CPBL…there are definitely no J or T players in the KBO). I think this might be due issues of pride on both sides. I don’t buy the argument that there are contractual problems.
But they need to get over it, unless the teams are content with MLB plucking the best players year after year. To this point that’s only happened in the Japanese league…but it’s just a matter of time before it happens in the other two.
The Asia Ice Hockey League sounds like a great start. They could even establish foreign player quotas to appease the team owners and fans.
And on that subject, and as it relates to Baekgom’s comment — I honestly wouldn’t mind if an MLB team fielded an all or mostly lineup of foreigners (the Detroit Tigers pretty much already do). But I’m American and it’s part of my nature and culture to embrace that kind of thing, even if it’s to my/our own detriment.
I understand what you’re saying though and the point of view is totally valid. But, I think we’ve come too far in terms of globalization to try and double back on these things. Even if there was say a four Brit requirement on each team some team, in the name of winning, would try to fudge that. They’d try to give automatic citizenship to some kid from Kenya or wherever as a workaround. I think we already see this in other international competitions.
6 John Brooks // May 28, 2008 at 1:29 pm
Yeah, but of course its unlikely the EC(European Commission) would ever agree to such a proposal. Reading this this from April, the EC warned FIFA to think twice about oversea restrictions.
Second, instead of introducting xenophobic legislation, the UEFA should be sponsoring youth soccer programs aimed at getting future home grown players.
Some Koreans would like to get rid of foreign players alltogether. I know there are occasional calls in the Japanese league for this as well.
Yeah, there’s been attempts at legislation in CPBL to lower the foreign quota too a few years back if I recall correctly which failed.
Instead of xenophobic legislation, the other Asian baseball leagues( CPBL and KBO) should follow in NPB’s steps and reserve a extra spot or maybe 2 for Japanese and Taiwanese players. It would go a step towards improving ball in Korea and Taiwan. In this age, KBO and CPBL can’t afford to take a step back which they will be which with foreign restrictions. Of course, though the player associations would be against any extension or elimination to the limits as it would mean increased competition for roster spots.
The more and more the time pass, I become more adamant against foreign player limits of any kind in any sport.
Also, in another subject regarding foreign players is I’m against the salary limits that KBO has regarding foreign players. That it restricts team to a cap of $300,000 for 1st year players and only allows for a 25% increase the next year.
7 John Brooks // May 28, 2008 at 3:07 pm
I’m not aware of any Japanese or Korean players in the CPBL…
CPBL teams have signed their fair share of Japanese players in the past, but I’m not aware of any Korean players in the CPBL.
8 John M // May 28, 2008 at 11:46 pm
“how would you feel if an MLB team fielded 9/10 players without a single American representative?”
Well, if they won the World Series, I wouldn’t give a damn. I’m a long-time Yankees fan, and if you look at the team right now, it’s more an international team than an American one. Who cares? There are always a few ‘token’ Americans in the lineup (heh) like Jeter, Giambi, maybe Duncan and usually the starting pitcher (Wang is the best, though). Most of the guys are from the Caribbean, Matsui is from Japan. I mean, A-Rod doesn’t play for the USA in international tourneys, now, does he?
The responsibility of any team owner is to field the best team possible. New Yorkers love Matsui, Posada, Abreu, Wang, Cabrerra, Rodriguez, Rivera….even Pettite, who’s from Texas (a foreign land, for sure).
If you’re hung up on nationalities and can’t identify with your team because they’re ‘not from here’, that says a lot more about you than anything else. If someone is on your team, you accept them. If they’re really good, you adopt them. If they help win championships, you invite them over for dinner and treat them like family.
But then, New York City isn’t as challenged as a lot of other places when it comes to this kind of thing. I sometimes forget that most of the US and the rest of the world tends to be lean ugly when it comes to ‘others’.
9 baekgom84 // May 29, 2008 at 8:56 am
If I had the choice between fielding a losing team of all the same nationality (wherever the leauge is based) or fielding a winning team of completely different nationalities, I’m pretty sure I know what I’d do, too. But I guess I still have an antiquated (is that the right word?) notion that a team has a duty of representation, particularly when they compete in international tournaments.
Take the Konami Cup, for example. Imagine if a Korean or Taiwanese team won it while fielding a mostly Japanese line-up (I realise that this scenario is currently impossible). One of the few attractions to this (otherwise uninteresting) tournament is the element of parochialism, and the chance to demonstrate that Japan/Korea/Taiwan/China can produce the best players in Asia. I’d feel a little deflated for my team if a breakthrough was achieved with mostly foreign players, and I think that’s the feeling a lot of European football fans, and especially in England, are experiencing now.
I realise this opinion might be interpreted as being xenophobic, and I guess at the bare bones of it, it pretty much is, although I want to stress that I’m certainly not xenophobic at all. Just that for me, one of the great thrills in sport is the chance to prove that ‘our lot is better than yours,’ especially when using home-grown players. With globalisation pretty much blurring the lines between races and countries (certainly not a bad thing), sport is one of the few avenues where we can have a light-hearted dig at our fellow neighbours, and celebrate our national identity.
10 simon // May 29, 2008 at 10:43 am
> I think that’s the feeling a lot of European football fans, and especially in England, are experiencing now.
Are you sure? It seems like the supporters of Man U, Chelsea, Arsenal, etc. are pretty exuberant whenever win titles with imports playing key roles on the team, or even consisting most of the starting eleven. (I haven’t seen any statistics supporting this one way or the other.)
> sport is one of the few avenues where we can have a light-hearted dig at our fellow neighbours, and celebrate our national identity.
I think tournaments like the World Cup, continental championships, World Baseball Classic, and other national team competitions achieve this. So, I don’t see anything wrong with club competitions not being restricted to domestic players.
Interestingly Japanese teams in the Asia Series/Konami Cup haven’t fielded full strength squads, as the competition in November doesn’t seem to be included in the foreign players contracts, they go back home after the Japan Series. So, you are getting a purely Japanese squad in the Asia Series/Konami Cup, fwiw. I think the Taiwanese champs have been bringing their imports to this competition, can’t remember about the Korean teams.
11 John Brooks // May 29, 2008 at 11:00 am
The Korean teams have brought their imports to the Konami Cup. Interesting though, so far it’s been all pitchers.
12 baekgom84 // May 29, 2008 at 11:09 am
> It seems like the supporters of Man U, Chelsea, Arsenal, etc. are pretty exuberant whenever win titles with imports playing key roles on the team…
That’s true - the constant winning of silverware generally manages to keep the fans happy. I have zero stastics to back me up on my claim, but I just sense there’s an undercurrent of ‘well, we’re winning titles, but it’d be nice if a few more players were English.’ The media often criticise teams that mostly field foreign players and praise those who use English players. But since I don’t live in England, I don’t really know what the average fan thinks, and that’s really the most important factor. In any case, I’m just stating this as a matter of opinion.
Without meaning to generalise, I think Americans (and Canadians) are a little more progressive and open-minded about sport, whereas English (and in my case, Australians) tend to be a little more conservative and traditionalist. There was a huge backlash earlier this year when the Premier League proposed playing a round of matches overseas, but I get the impression that this is somewhat encouraged in America (I know that there was a small outcry about the Red Sox/A’s game in Japan, but wasn’t that mainly because it was the season opener?)
And the Konami Cup wasn’t a great example but it was relevant to the blog. Last year SK brought both of their foreign pitchers to the competition, and didn’t Chunichi play Lee Byung-gyu? (that’s his name, right?)
13 John Brooks // May 29, 2008 at 11:55 am
and didn’t Chunichi play Lee Byung-gyu? (that’s his name, right?)
Yes, Chunichi brought Lee along, but the thing to remember is that NPB teams do reserve one spot for Asian players, so its likely that Lee was excluded from counting against the foreign player limit.
Switching back to the Konami Cup, Chiba Lotte’s foreign players(Matt Franco, Benny Agbayani, Seung Yeop Lee) all participated in the Cup in 2005.
14 simon // May 29, 2008 at 12:04 pm
Thanks for pointing out the Marines’ imports. I actually went to see one of those games at the Dome. But Lotte might be more of an exception than the rule (until a Japanese champion loses the Cup), I guess we’ll see with the upcoming years of the tournament.
15 Shinsano // May 29, 2008 at 12:27 pm
If I’m not mistaken Tyrone Woods skipped the Konami because he had to attend his sister’s wedding or something like that. I was thinking it was a fairly rude thing to do, since the tournament’s credibility is fragile anyway. But maybe he was able to beg out because he’s not contractually obligated.
Thanks for the heated discussion guys. I always like to see that on here. We can strike up the band again once Jackson’s Asian League piece hits the street next week.
16 congress bigger stronger faster // Aug 4, 2008 at 5:48 pm
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