3 'Foreigner' rule

Sauchiebear

Well-Known Member
I was speaking to my 13 year old son the other day about football when I was growing up.

I touched on the old 3 'foreigner' rule. (not sure the term Foreigner is PC these days) He couldn't believe that it was actually a rule.

Its hard to think of it today especially with all the money floating around and the multi national culture of European football.

My biggest memory was AC Milan with Guillt , Rijkard and Van Basten as there 3.

What are peoples thoughts on it being implemented today and what other mad rules that floated about ?
 
Millions of pounds worth of players in the stand, with the likes of Stephen Pressley playing :eek:
 
We still have it in a way. The homegrown rule. Easier to get round than the three foreigner rule but still designed to limit the 'foreigners'.

Imo all it achieves is driving up the price of young talent as clubs try to get them younger so they will qualify sooner.
 
When you think of how defensive the mhedia have been towards the scum getting beat 5-0 but used to give us pelters when we get beat in Europe, it actually makes their defeats even worse as they areallowed to play all there best players.
ps. Of course the word foreigner is acceptable. What else would you call them?
 
We still have it in a way. The homegrown rule. Easier to get round than the three foreigner rule but still designed to limit the 'foreigners'.

Imo all it achieves is driving up the price of young talent as clubs try to get them younger so they will qualify sooner.

You see that play out down here big time. 40 mil for the Ox a perfect case in point
 
My only recollection of the restriction on foreigners was playing one of the very first Champ Man games, and it being a total pain in the bollock.
 
Found an article on it and we were one of the clubs leading the push for it to be scrapped:

Relief at end of 'foreigner' rule
Amid the general dismay over the wholescale changes in football's transfer system, the silver lining yesterday was the abolition of the three-foreigner rule in the European club competitions, writes Guy Hodgson.

British teams have suffered this restriction more than others because England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are regarded as separate countries by Uefa. Partly as a consequence, British clubs have won only one European trophy since its introduction, the Cup-Winners' Cup in 1994, by Arsenal, and Rangers, Manchester United and Blackburn Rovers have all failed to get beyond the early stages of the European Cup in the last three years.

Rangers have been lobbying for a change in the three-foreigner rule for several years and yesterday the club's vice-chairman, Donald Findlay QC, welcomed its scrapping by the European Court of Justice. "We are delighted with the verdict," he said. "It means that our foreign players are now just Rangers players, pure and simple, and are available for every game."

Alex Ferguson, manager of Manchester United, who was forced to juggle his teams in 1993-4 and 1994-5 in the Champions' League, was also pleased, if a little frustrated. "It's come two years late for us," he said, "because we'd have had a chance of winning the European Cup in 1994 otherwise."


One dissenting voice was Gordon Taylor, chief executive of the Professional Footballers' Association, who fears for England's future. "I think this will lead to a flood of foreign players coming here, which I believe will be to the detriment of our game. The only way to control the number of imports will be to ban non-European footballers from competing here."
 
I'd love for that rule to come back, as at the moment the markets are a shambles, coincidentally the best we've done in the CL was when we had this rule in place. Although having said that the depth of Scottish talent is extremely poor.
 
I was speaking to my 13 year old son the other day about football when I was growing up.

I touched on the old 3 'foreigner' rule. (not sure the term Foreigner is PC these days) He couldn't believe that it was actually a rule.

Its hard to think of it today especially with all the money floating around and the multi national culture of European football.

My biggest memory was AC Milan with Guillt , Rijkard and Van Basten as there 3.

What are peoples thoughts on it being implemented today and what other mad rules that floated about ?
Inter also had Matthaus,Klinsmann and Brehmer
 
The year we played Leeds was due to the 3 foreigner rule. Stuttgart put Leeds out in the first round but they picked 4 foreigners in the leg at Elland Road so there was a one off tie and the winners played us. Leeds won 2-1 in the Nou Camp

Also, you could have "homegrown" foreigners as Leeds did with Gary Speed since he came through their youth ranks. He played against us along with McAllister, Strachan and Cantona who were their three foreigners
 
One dissenting voice was Gordon Taylor, chief executive of the Professional Footballers' Association, who fears for England's future. "I think this will lead to a flood of foreign players coming here, which I believe will be to the detriment of our game. The only way to control the number of imports will be to ban non-European footballers from competing here.":

Gordon Taylor was spot on there.
 
What is wrong with the term foreigner, who can be offended by that?

I'm sure Donald Finlay played a part in challenging the rule at the time.

The ethos of the rule was to promote homegrown players and to that extent it was well intentioned but terribly thought out and put in to practice.

OP tell your boy about the 6 second rule and football before the passback rule, another 2 bonkers rules.
 
I have a vague memory of UEFA being ready to change it to five foreigners before the European Court stepped-in regarding this within the Bosman case. Can't find anything though.

Personally I think in principle it had its merits. Perhaps three was far too restrictive, but the idea of developing domestic talent is worthy.
 
What is wrong with the term foreigner, who can be offended by that?

I'm sure Donald Finlay played a part in challenging the rule at the time.

The ethos of the rule was to promote homegrown players and to that extent it was well intentioned but terribly thought out and put in to practice.

OP tell your boy about the 6 second rule and football before the passback rule, another 2 bonkers rules.
Thats how it started tbh. Was there not some weird rule about the number of times the keeper could bounce the ball too ?
 
Thats how it started tbh. Was there not some weird rule about the number of times the keeper could bounce the ball too ?

They had a steps rule, think it was 3 or 5. IIRC it was forward steps, remember keepers taking big backwards steps when close to 18yd box.
 
It could come back into play with Brexit, depending on the "deal" that the UK and the EU agree to.

I know a lot of the English lads I work with are thinking this way and they are actually quite excited about it.
 
It could come back into play with Brexit, depending on the "deal" that the UK and the EU agree to.

I know a lot of the English lads I work with are thinking this way and they are actually quite excited about it.

It will never happen, it would put English clubs at a disadvantage in the European football arena.
It would also dilute the product TV pay so handsomely for and that won't be allowed to happen.
 
I'm quite sure now that brexit is upon us we will go back to this state of affairs.

In those days when we were dominating it sure was the done thing to scrutinise how many foreign players we had more so by the tabloids, and to think that British players were classed as foreign because they played in another part of the UK was crap.

Look at the team's in England these days, there's a dearth of English talent due to the influx of players from everywhere.


Oh and the Times when we did try and sign players we got hit by the 10 foreigner rule and that 3 foreigner rule.

Jardel being one player we got knocked back for. That may also be due to us being reluctant to challenge the rule, I don't know.
 
The year we played Leeds was due to the 3 foreigner rule. Stuttgart put Leeds out in the first round but they picked 4 foreigners in the leg at Elland Road so there was a one off tie and the winners played us. Leeds won 2-1 in the Nou Camp

Also, you could have "homegrown" foreigners as Leeds did with Gary Speed since he came through their youth ranks. He played against us along with McAllister, Strachan and Cantona who were their three foreigners

It is incredible to think that 2 of their 3 foreigners were Scottish players!
 
Italy still has a non EU rule although it is easily circumvented.

I'm surprised it was only introduced in 1989, growing up I had thought it was always the rule.
 
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