For those of you concerned about discrimination in any form, this next item will be of particular interest .... The President of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), Joseph S. Blatter, has for many years argued that member teams should favor domestic over foreign players to foster the development of homegrown talent. Recently, Gerry Sutcliffe, England's Sports Minister, joined the fray suggesting that the English Premier League would be better off if it implemented a rule mandating the employment of English players in the league. The professed logic for such measures is that, if the domestic leagues and teams cultivated local talent, national teams from such locales would be stronger and more popular. This, in turn, would lead to greater competition and more interest in events involving country versus country.
The latest salvo on this issue has come from FIFA, which recently floated what has been called the "six plus five" proposal. Pursuant to the "six plus five" rule, each FIFA club would be required to start a majority of players – i.e., six players – eligible to play for the national team of the country in which the club is located in each soccer match. The other five players could be foreigners. FIFA's congress has endorsed the "six plus five" proposal and plans to implement the rule by the 2012-13 season.
The "six plus five" proposal, however, appears likely to face significant opposition on the grounds that it would violate the European Union's antidiscrimination laws. The President of the European Commission, HansGert Pöttering, announced that he will not support it and in May the EU Parliament voted overwhelmingly to reject it. Thus, the proposal appears to be on a collision course with the EU. If so, it would not be the first time that quotas in soccer have been challenged. In 1995, in Union Royale Belge des Societes de Football Association v. Bosman, the European Court of Justice struck down player limits on the grounds that they violated worker employment rights under the EEC Treaty. That ruling was cited by EU authorities when they rejected the "six plus five" proposal.
This headbutting regarding the employment of domestic players in domestic leagues and teams seems likely to continue for some time with FIFA apparently committed to implementing the "six plus five" rule, and EU authorities equally committed to their view that any such rules would be discriminatory, although EU Commission President Pöttering has said that he will continue dialogue with Blatter on the subject.
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