Increase in foreign quota slammed by local players

MBABANE – Local premier league players have, voiced their disagreement on the decision to increase the foreign quota to seven players per club.

Four elite league footballers in separate interviews yesterday slammed Friday’s decision taken by the extra ordinary sitting of the National Football Association of Swaziland NFAS general assembly.
The players; Mbabane Highlanders Mxolisi Nana Dlamini, Mbabane Swallows Lwazi Zidane Maziya, Royal Leopards Zakhele Manyatsi and Manzini Wanderers Manqoba Tsabedze all said increasing the number of foreigners would stifle local talent.

The diminutive Black Bull attacking midfielder said apart from the fact that endeavor will be expensive for local teams; it will also affect the performance of national squads.
“It is counter-productive to develop, and instead it will benefit the individual teams on a short basis. But when you look at the long term effect, the country’s football will be the biggest loser,” he said.
Royal Leopards and Sihlangu centre back Zakhele Manyatsi described the increase in foreign quota as killing football.

“This means that youngsters should forget about making it in the premier league, because teams will import talent. It won’t improve competition either because most of the players we sign are not far above the local players in terms of quality,” he said.

Mbabane Swallows lavishly talented player Lwazi Zidane Maziya said local players will have to compete for only four slots in the starting eleven, because most teams prefer foreigners.

“Local players will hard done because of the increased quota. That is why I feel the decision is bad for the development of local players and by extension the national team Sihlangu.”
He was echoed by Manzini Wanderers captain Manqoba Tsabedze who asserted that the decision will be a financial drain to the team that would rush to register seven foreigners.

“The wage bill will be high and more than that, local players will feel demotivated because they do not have contracts as compared to the foreigners. The best thing now is to have all players tied in a contract to avoid a situation where local players will feel less important than their foreign born team mates.”

Friday’s ground breaking decision has shocked the local football landscape. And it remains to be seen what really influenced the decision by the FA general assembly. The PLS had moved for the increase of foreigners from five to seven players per team. The strange thing is that all seven would be eligible to play at the same time.

Interestingly, the decision is contrary to the documented Pigg’s Peak declaration adopted by football stakeholders at Orion Hotel that called for the reduction of the foreign from five to three in the beginning of the 2011/12 season.