For a number of years now, one of the raging debates about football development is visibility of the home-grown talent and how to deal with increasing foreign talent. If one looks at the top 5 leagues in the world, they range from 43% in for La Liga which is the lowest of the top 5 leagues to Premier League at 65%. Itās a staggering number. That said in some of these markets the requirement for foreigners to qualify for work permits are far more stringent than it is. Of course the European leagues certainly the EU have a common market rule that essentially means all 27+1 nations have a single labour law that sees them as one market. So players form the common market cannot be classified as foreigners.
In Africa, theĀ South African Premier SoccerĀ League (PSL) has the highest number of foreigners in the league. If you compare the big 5 in Africa, that is, Morocco, Egypt, Tunisia, South Africa and Algeria, SA has the highest % of foreigners of any major African leagues.Ā According to Sports Stats Group this league draws its players from 36 nations mainly in Africa but also Asia, Europe and South America. The argument for foreigners and often a condition for granting work permits is that itās a skill that does not exist in the country and thus helps raise the skill level in the industry. How does football fare and do football clubs import talent that is better than what we have?Ā
Well, there are several ways of measuring what quality talent we import one is international caps and the other game time. We have looked at the game time of the players in the PSL by nationality. As the graph below shows the result, the red dotted line represents e average game time per player and every nation whose players fall below the line red line are getting game below average and those that are above are getting more than average.Ā In simple terms below that line those nations at least some of those players are no better than what this country has and those above simply mean those players are better than what this country have to offer.
So what does the analysis show players 20 nations of the 36 nations are either average or below that is these players are not better than the local talent. So while over the last couple year 20% of PSL this exercise shows that many of these players are not good enough and certainly not better than our local talent. What this has also done is simply sharing the talent pool from which the national teamās can be selected. On average key positions or strikers or goal keepers are occupied by players who are not better than the local talent. Last South Africa failed to qualify in for AFCON only for the two teams who qualified ahead of south Africa to bomb out in a first round.
For years we have known that the number of foreigners in our league were not making our league better and now we have empirical evidence that shows that for many their playing time is nowhere near where the local playing time of the local players. It is easy in a nation like ours facing many challenges and one of which is the despicable xenophobia to look at this opinion as yet another anti xenophobic social commentary I do hope that fact of this opinion piece speaks for themselves.Ā This indeed is some that every nation on earth should do. Default to your own population unless better skills that will help uplift your own population are at hand. In this case it quite clear that if some of these nations were better, they will be playing more than local players if they are not then cannot be better,
South Africa football like the national faces some serious developmental challenges, one of this creating a vibrant and growing domestic player market. This critical the socio-economic development of the game. Right now it seems far too easy to just sign a foreign player without necessary ensuring that the said player is better than what the local market, indeed we have had fantastica international who have done a lot to improve our and some have gone on to bigger clubs and leagues. But it is quite too that far too many are not better than what this country produces and such exercise it is hope will go along to ensure that when we do import talent it better and improve our or we seek local talent for the well-being of the game depends on this. For that to happen SAFA as the ultimate football authority, the PSL the league that is responsible for the professional game and the government work better for the benefit pf the game.Ā
