The ‘6+5 rule’ as proposed by Sepp Blatter is generating a lot of discussion amongst all football followers. For those who are still confused or unaware of this new rule, here is a quick summary.

The creatively-named ‘6+5 rule’ simply implies that a team’s line-up on the field must be composed of at least 6 domestic players. These ‘domestic players’ must have born in that country and must be eligible for domestic team duty. For example, a club like AC Milan would have to include 6 Italian players in their line-up who are Italian-born and eligible to play for the Italian national team. The only problem for the new rule is its application in Europe where it comes up against the EU’s labour laws.

Why? Sepp Blatter explains that this rule is necessary because many domestic clubs are dominated by foreigners that they have lost their role of nurturing players for their national teams. One commonly cited example, is Arsenal FC from England. Despite it being an English club, its first 11 has been regularly dominated by foreign players, most notably French players. From time to time, an English player may start, but most of the time, it is a completely foreign team. Hence, Arsenal plays no role in helping to nurture players for the England national team.

When? The question of when it will be fully implemented is still left to be answered. In most parts of the world, except Europe, it was implemented at the FIFA Congress in Sydney in May. The problem is implementing it in the European Union where the problem of restricting foreigners mainly resides. However, EU labour laws stipulate that labour must be free to move anywhere within the EU and the ‘6+5 rule’ would technically prohibit such movement. FIFA is now hoping and lobbying the EU to make football an exceptional case, paving the way for the rule to be implemented. Watch this space.

In order to ensure that the new rule is implemented and enforced, all national associations will cooperate with FIFA.

That basically all there is to know about the ‘6+5 rule’ up until the present day. There are sure to be many more developments regarding these issues which will covered in further articles as they happen.

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