I believe the new rules also limit the total roster size to 25 players and you have to have 4 youth academy players as well.
That works really well, and sounds like it will help Milan especially. They have such a bright academy to be honest. And this is coming from a Juve fan. Donnarumma, Mastour, Mastalli, Locatelli, Calabria. The backbone for their midfield and full back positions is already set as long as they develop them.
The reason its not legal is because under EU labour laws there aint no such thing as an Italian. Its like a northern club refusing to let a southerner play.
One arguement against forcing such a limit would be the loss of competitiveness in Europe... but when no teams are even making the quaters of Euro/Champions league, then it no longer matters. This season was a great chance to get back 3rd rank in Europe but they blew it. The EU is holding together by a thread. FIGC could do it if they really wanted too.
I wonder how it would play out. Assuming the FIGC decides to bring in a '5 Italian minimum on field' rule... Who would object to this most strongly? Clubs? EUFA? FIFA? the EU? I don't see any benefits in trying to mimic the EPL/Global league model while Spain is impossible as we don't have state-sponsored teams. The idea to reduce the teams in SA seemed the best as it would improve competitiveness, and naturally increase the number of Italians at all clubs.
Another way around it is, if the clubs and their presidents all decide to not sign as many foreigners and point to developing ONLY Italian players, I still don't see how they would be breaking a law. They just won't go after certain players. Do we really need to employ foreign GK's and foreign defenders when Italy's have historically been the best in the world? Its either they do all these things or just do away with the WC and Euro's and play all star league tournaments with different nationalities or better yet, create an actual European Super league using top teams... I mean what is the point of playing the games every four years using scrubs from lesser teams? I mean I love Sassuolo and all but what about seeing top Italian players on Inter, Juve, Milan, Roma and Fiorentina? Don't we all wish to see our Italian national team players playing on top CL and UEFA place competitions involving Italian clubs?
You know I had a friend back in the late 80's early 90's who only talked about Inter. Beppe Baresi, Bergomi, Zenga , Altobelli, Marini , Oriali and Matteoli. All great players and at least they were all Italian but God how I hated them!
The way I see it, there shouldn't be any problem. It can go back to the 80's and 90's where AC Milan and Juve were the best (no offence to other clubs) and the only foreign players they had were the best, instead of buying a bunch of foreign players for the hell of it.
Telling you man. Once Italy gets back to the top, it's not going to be because of anyone but Juve (and maybe a hint of Milan because they have great youth). I've done some analyzing of my own and it's become incredibly obvious how Barca and Bayern have basically helped their own leagues, by being so good. Bayern Munich got so good that it forced the rest of the league to reform. They couldn't match them financially so they had a youth reform and now that's why you're seeing a budding golden generation for them. Borussia look like a top 5 team in the world because they're forced to try and compete with a monster team like Bayern. Same with Spain. Barca got so good that it forced Real Madrid to try and match, and the rest of the league, following suit, could not match them financially, so the youth reform brought them closer and that's why you saw Spain dominate international football for 5 years. England is a one off because their league is riddled with foreigners to the point where they're not worth discussing. Juve and Milan's primavera in addition to great scouting on Juve's part will be the reason Italy comes back to world football with a bang. Inter may as well liquidate at this point. Their owner's family was exposed as laundering money in Panama to avoid paying taxes, and if they don't make CL (which is likely given that Roma are in great form and Napoli have too big a lead on them), they'll have a fire sale. Which is fine. It's going to take a few years. The recession is over. The stadia reform has begun in some capacity (Juve have their's, Roma soon, AC Milan are planning to leave the San Siro, Udinese have their own, heard Napoli might have one in the future and so forth). Now they just have to realize how talented the youth in Italy are. Bernardeschi, Berardi, Rugani and Romagnoli are just the tip of the ice berg.
even if there is a mandatory minimum for "italian players" or a "european player" you are going to see a heck of a lot more "italians" and "europeans" popping up from south america who had a great grandmother that was born in italy or something along those lines. the change has to come from the mentality of the clubs. Look at Sassuolo. They are a smaller club, made up of mostly Italian players (21 out of 26 current first squad players are Italian). They also sit 7th place in the league, the highest of any provincial squad.
Another problem is , no one really cares about the national team until they come crashing out every two or 4 years in given Euro or WC. I mean many Italians living abroad care about it but normal club fans living there don't care really. You don't see riots at Lazio's headquarters last week weren't because Italy lost to Germany 1-4 but its because of the club lost to Roma 1-4. You won't see flags flying with Totti's face in a blue jersey at the Stadio Olimpico stadium because the national team lost a game. Basically , nobody cares. I understand, the predicament as the national team plays maybe 5-7 games a year and its kind of difficult to get into a club that starts many different players each time. When I lived in Italy I didn't see this huge following of the national team. I mean they care to a point but not as much as the clubs. No one cared when they lost in Livorno after wining the WC the month before. My cousins in Italy lose sleep when Lazio , Roma, Milan or Juve lose but don't really care much when Italy loses.
On the other side of the coin , no one seemed to be rioting when Italy exited in 2002, 2004, 2008 ,2010 or 2014.
Italians don't riot when their teams lose.....even if only they are fans at the club level that rioting bullshit is for hipster hockey fans in Vancouver when they lose the Stanley Cup in both 1994 and 2011. Hipster Colorado hockey fans when they win the Stanley Cup 1996...go figure??? And English/Scottish football fans whether they win or lose
I do remember affter the 86 WC fans shouted, "italia non sai giocaaa mi fai proprio vomitaaaa"! Back to the thread, why is it when I say I don't like or want the overabundance of foreigners in the Serie A, some in other threads say I am in the wrong but then most of Italy is talking about the same thing? Just curious.....
You'rea talking about getting back to the top, how is that gonna happen when most club owner voted in a known corrupt guy in Tavecchio who is now also playing games with sponsors etc showing no integrity? No one in this game in the back rooms cares about football, they care about money flowing to their personal bank accounts. The season just gone has shown its all about money not sport, next season refferees will have sponsors on their shirts from an insurance company, owned by fiat. Italian football is dead guys, stop dreaming.
It's a bit unfair to expect Serie A to get back to the top. Italy had the best league mainly because we had owner/patrons who loved the sport, spent their own money, and bought in international superstars to make great teams. Now everyone uses that model and it's all business orientated. Personally, I don't want to become like EPL, where every team has a foreign owner (most who don't even attend the games and use the club only as a business investment).
I personally don't believe in all of this EPL superiority and don't buy all the hype. Seriously I'm happy for Claudio Ranieri but will a team like Leicester City have won the Serie A? Or overtaken Juventus Napoli and Roma? I still retain if they did in fact become bigger its only because of the English language not to mention American Chinese and other foreign ownership & sponsorship dollars. There has to be a reason why British players rarely do well abroad and it's simply because their players aren't that good. I'd like them all come to Italy and see how the game is supposed to be played.