Impact of foreign athletes in the S-league

Abstract

Of the many changes that globalization has brought to the world of football, the 1995 Bosman Ruling, which allowed professional players in the European Union to move freely to another club at the end of their term of contract with their present team was a landmark judgment that completely changed the way footballers are employed worldwide. It was with this avocation that the Singapore league (S-league), came up with the idea of having foreign players participating in their competition. Over the years, the issue of the impact of the foreign players was raised. Have they provided positive contributions to the competition or are they merely restricting the local players from developing further? Two studies were conducted to ascertain their contributions. The first study, which looked at the top 10 goal scorers over the course of six years from 2007-2012, was conducted to determine if foreign players scored more goals than local players. The second study was aimed at the competitiveness that foreign teams brought in to the S-league. Three foreign clubs were used to compare their rankings over the course of two years, 2012-2013, as they are the only clubs that have participated together over two years consecutively. The results showed that foreign players did not provide a positive impact to the S-league despite initial data showing otherwise. Although, the foreigners provide some quality to the S-league, they hinder the progress of local player and restricting the selection process of the national team thus the need to limit the foreign quota as well as reviewing the scouting network of the Football Association of Singapore.