Quota players

Quota players are athletes in team sports whos numbers in a specific team are limited due to the rules of specific competitions said team plays in. At present most of these restrictions are used to aid financial equality between teams or encourage the use of local players.

Such quotas can limit the number of players from outside a team's country, or limit the salary a players is on. Oppositely, quotas can also dictate teams have a minimum number of a specific type of player. Racial quotas have also been used in the past with the aim of combating racism.

Notable examples

Association football

• In English football, the Homegrown Player Rule states that all Premier League team 25-man squads must have eight players who have played in either the English or Welsh youth system for at least three years before age 21.

• UEFA's Homegrown Player Rule also requires eight players of a 25-man squad to be trained in a domestic youth system. Further, four of the eight must have played for the club's own youth system.

• In Major League Soccer, the Designated Player Rule allowed players in the league to be paid higher than the league's salary cap, while also limiting the number of these players to three per team. The rule was introduced in order to encourage more high profile players to join the league and aid the growth of the competition. The rule, also called the "Beckham Rule", is named after David Beckham, who was the first player to be signed under this rule in 2007.

Rugby league

• The Rugby Football League's overseas quota limits the number of non-federation trained players to seven. In practice, a federation trained player must have played in Europe for three years before age 21. The rule applies to the top three tiers British rugby (i.e., the Super League, Championship, and League 1). The rule was introduced in 2019, the limit was five. A previous incarnation of this rule existed in the 2000s which saw a maximum of three non European players.
• Exemptions:
  • The "New Play Rule" exempts players from a club's quota if they are signed from a different sport.
  • In 2019, Widnes Vikings went into administration resulting in a number of players being contracts being terminated. The club's three overseas players were made exempt from other club's quotas in order to such clubs to sign them.
  • Toronto Wolfpack:
    • During the club's time in British rugby, Canadian, American, and Jamaican players were exempt from the club's quota.
    • Following the club's exit from British rugby, all players were made exempt from other club's quotas for the duration of their contract in order to facilitate these players continuing to play in the league.

South African sport

• Following the end of Apartheid in South Africa, sport was still largely played by white South Africans with non-white players largely ignored. In an effort to combat these issues racial quotas were set up for many of the major sports in the country, including cricket and rugby union. However, the players selected for their teams often received just as much — if not more — abuse from fans and even their own teammates, especially if the team lost a match. South African rugby union is split on quotas; teams in the lower leagues are required to play a minimum number of non-white players, while the top domestic teams and the national team are not.

Advantages and disadvantages

Foreign player quotas

The presence of foreign players are often argued to be to detriment of domestic players' development, and consequentially the national team. A counterpoint view, is that foreign players give opportunity to local players to be able to compete against international players outside of national team matches.

In the Chinese Super League, where high-profile foreign players often fetch higher transfer fees and salary, state-run media Xinhua criticized clubs that employ foreign reinforcements as "burning money".