Can someone please breifly summerize the rules regarding foreign (specifically non-EU) players in the top flight of Dutch Football? For instance, I know that for an American to sign with a Premiership (UK) club, he must have appeared in enough US National Team games to be granted a work permit. How does the Dutch system compare? Can they sign anyone they want? Or is there some "hurdle" designed to restrict foreign players from taking over the league? Thanks for your help! Dave G.
We donot have a formal barrier to keep out non Euro players. To prevent clubs from hiring mediocre players from outside the Euro zone those players have to be payed a minimum wage that is about 380 000 €€.
Is that the same for the second division in Holland as well? or are their different requirements for the second division?
Well, the minimum has gone up since then and applies to both leagues. But there is a development going on that is ment to lower that absurd sum, because as a result of that our clubs cannot hire promising talents and that sets us back as the big money clubs plunder our youth. The league is thinking about a minimum wage that is an average sum of the leagues wage or an average of the club's wages that wants to hire the player. So Ajax and Feyenoord are obliged to pay more. But it will take some time and thinking before anything is going to change.
There have been several US born players who came to play in the Eredivisie in recent years: Michael Bradley, Robbie Rogers, and Lee Ngyeun. The first two with Heerenveen and the latter with PSV. Only Bradley was successful. Rogers left after six months to return to the US (but now has transferred to Leeds United) and Nguyen is back in the USA. I'm blanking on the name but there was a really good US defender who came to Feyenoord but suffered a really bad knee injury.
