Maritzburg United chairman Farook Kadodia believes there should be no restrictions on foreign signings in South African football as long as the players recruited are good enough to feature in the starting XIs of the clubs.
The Premier Soccer League (PSL) currently has a quota of five foreign registrations on each of its top-flight members. However, there is no yardstick on what quality of player is being brought into the country.
Kadodia feels that foreign players must come to the PSL with the hunger and desire of using the league as a stepping-stone for big European move.
With no way of measuring the quality of players being brought to South Africa, it often means that average players do end up in our league, essentially diminishing the product. This is something Kadodia would like to avoid.
But he feels that a European Union or British style system could be adopted. In the UK, for example, foreign players have to have played a certain number of international games for their country during a certain window period in order to qualify to play for a team.
Kadodia also believes that an open market system where there is no limit on EU players joining English clubs could work.
Kadodia believes it was far too easy to secure a contract as a professional footballer in the current climate of the South African game. He says clubs need to place more value on recruitment and pointed to how Soweto giants Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates had been idolised in the past, where the quality of their brand was placed top of the priority list.
The Maritzburg chairman added that the perception that foreign players are occupying local positions should be a non-discussion as long as those being brought into the PSL system were of the highest calibre.
– Report by Thahir Asmal
