Danny Jordaan calls for review of PSL’s foreign player quota

Safa president Danny Jordaan says his organisation and the Premier Soccer League will have a meeting early next year to discuss a few issues. 

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And top among those is the PSL’s foreign player quota per team. A PSL team can have five foreign players registered at the moment. 

But there is no limit to the number of them that they can use in one game. It is argued that this is too many players from outside the country and that it affects Bafana Bafana. 

Speaking to SABC Sport at the weekend, Jordaan said the issue needs to be addressed with a view to finding a better solution. 

He says they could look to follow Saudi Arabia’s policy where teams have to field seven local players including the goalkeeper. 

“We are going to start the new year by addressing these issues because for too long there has been a question asked, ‘but why is Bafana not performing?’

“In 1996 we had 10 (local) goalkeepers in the Premier Soccer League,” said Jordaan. “At some stage, Pirates had seven strikers who were playing in the National League. 

“So, we have to say, ‘is the issue of having an arrangement of six-plus-five working in helping the national team?’,” added Jordaan. 

In the PSL at the moment a team can have even more than five foreign players in their team if they have some who are naturalised and registered as locals. 

A foreign player can be naturalised after he had played in the country for more than five years. 

Bafana’s goalkeeper pool has diminished over the years with more PSL teams using foreign keepers. 

Currently, of the 16 DStv Premiership teams, at least six have foreign goalkeepers as their number one choice between the sticks. 

Jordaan also felt it was unfair to draw comparisons between Bafana and Morocco who are currently rocking the boat at the Fifa World Cup in Qatar.

The Atlas Lions have become the first African country to reach the semifinals in the World Cup after upsetting both Spain and Portugal in the knockout stages. 

They will now face France in the semifinals on Wednesday at 9pm. Bafana became a hot topic after Morocco’s impressive exploits. 

“We must not equate a team that has 90% of their players coming from Europe and becoming citizens in order to be in the team.  How’s it possible that one Williams (Inaki) is playing for Ghana, and his brother, another Williams (Nico), is playing for Spain?

“Our focus is, we must not be distracted by that fundamentally our position is we must produce world-class players that can compete with the best in the world,” says Jordaan.