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Author: cska
Date: 05-04-2006, 09:25

In fact, the eventual limitations on foreign players in a club based on EU versus non-EU is a discrimination and gives unfair advantages to all EU clubs over the non-EU clubs.
It is real discrimination, because if it is an English or Spanish or Italian or other EU club it can have 11 foreign players on the pitch only if they are from the EU. But if it is a Russian or even a Swiss or an Icelandic club then EU players will be considered foreigners.
In fact each EU club can claim that players of 25 nationalities are "local", while non-EU clubs can count only on their own nationality.
If someone says that EU is now one country by law and hence EU players should be considered local for EU clubs, then I would say "OK, but why then EU does not have only 1 championship for this 1 country ?". Each EU country has a local championship and sends numerous teams to CL and UC, so it is not fair towards the non-EU teams. This is a discrimination, in fact.

Re: EU versus non-EU footballers-it is discrimination
Author: isidromv Date: 05-04-2006, 09:51 Edited by: isidromv at: 05-04-2006, 09:52	The discrimination is not done by UEFA, in UEFA competitions there is no limit of foreign players at all, and this apply to all clubs. The discrimination is done by the local FAs and apply only to local competitions.

Author: STK
Date: 05-04-2006, 11:04

Yes, that's right. This time i don't think is a discrimination. The football federations have the right to set a limit of foreigner/ extracomunitar players for the domestic competition which they organized. The Bulgarian Football Federation, and another federation have the same right to limit the number of foreigner/comumitar players. If this rule would apply to UCL and UC also, then, yes this would be unfair, because the UE clubs would have the advantage to choose players from a larger numer of countries without exeeding the "limit". UEFA has bigger sins than this one. Yes is discriminatory for non-comunitar players, regarding working laws, but this is not a sportiv issue, the same situation is for each non-comunitar citizen. I really think that non-comunitar countries should have the same restrictions regarding comunitar citizen and even investments.

Look to the positive side, lesser non-comunitar players in the comunitar clubs, means less players sellings from our countries and more chances for performances ("selling" is a big word, this players are buyed almost for free, and for proffit).

Author: Gauss
Date: 05-04-2006, 15:08
Edited by: Gauss
at: 05-04-2006, 15:09

Because of the considerations named in the first post, the german FA decided to change their ruling starting from season 2007/08. Btw, in Germany there was no distinction between EU and non-EU players but it was between UEFA and non-UEFA. Russian or bulgarian players are treated in the same way as french or dutch.

But from 2007/08 onwards there will be NO limit on foreign players at all. Instead the German FA adopted the local players rule that was proposed by UEFA: Each team has to have two players who were trained by the respective club plus two players who were trained by any club within the german FA. "Trained by" means that the player has been playing for the club for at least three years between age 15 and 21. From season 2008/09 this number will be increased to three plus three. (Isn't this rule also coming for european competitions from 2006/07?).

Author: badgerboy
Date: 05-04-2006, 15:28

Good topic title.

As already explained by STK and isidromv though there is no "discrimination" in the way cska means.

However, taking the question another way makes for a very interesting (if complicated) topic. Are the current regulations discriminatory against non-EU footballers?

I'd been meaning to look at the rules afresh for some time now having read in World Soccer magazine some years ago about the Lilia Malaja case (a Hungarian female basketball player claiming discrimination because of the limits on the number of non-EEA players allowed in a team) but never having heard any follow-up to this case.

This prompted me to some research this morning and the discovery of another case - that of a Slovakian handball player called Maros Kolpak.

The first thing I have to say having done the research is that STK is incorrect when he says that "The Football Federations have the right to set a limit of foreign players for the domestic competition which they organized". Apparently they do not (at least in the case of countries with whom the EU has Association and - possibly - cooperation agreements!

For a very detailed legal assessment of the situation I found a dissertation by a chap called Bernard Schmeilzl which I'll try linking here but if I fail can be found at
www.grafpartner.com/downloads/Dissertation_Final.pdf

I found another - slightly more easy to handle - account of the situation in the International Sports Law Journal. Again the link is hopefully here but if not the address is www.sportslaw.nl/documents/cms_sports_id59_1_ISLJ_2004-1-2Def.5.pdf
Pages 26 to 33 are the relevant ones.

I can't account for the accuracy of everything in either of the above articles - the second credits UEFA with 55 members for example (might be right with associates?)

So - in short - restrictions on foreign players cannot be set by national associations as number of "foreigner" rules by team are discriminatory. The only limits can be set by national legislation which restricts the issue of a work permit to an individual.

Perhaps the most interesting part of the sportslaw article (because it part asked a question I was going to ask) was the laying out of the rules for obtaining work permits in a number of different EU member states - namely Spain, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands.

So my first question - What are the rules regarding work permits in other EU member states - and are the rules for the four given above the same now as when the law article was written? The UK rules are here

Next question. Do any EU countries still have "illegal" restrictions in place?

Next. Is a non-EEA player playing for an EU club within one member state not entitled to the same rights as an EU player playing for that same club - or any other club within that association - in any member state? So if - for example - a Tunisian player is playing in the German second division for two years but never for the national team then an English club would not be allowed to sign him but would be allowed to sign a similar player if they were Latvian. Is this legal?