5 rule changes that have revolutionised modern football

5. Cap on number of foreign players, and sugar daddies

Let us consider these facts:

- When Arsenal played Napoli in the Champions League earlier this month, the Gunners’ starting XI included only one Englishman in Kieran Gibbs.

- The big five leagues in Europe spent a total of over £1.9 billion over the summer transfer window.

In 1993, UEFA made one of the biggest decisions in its history. Until then, every club under them had restrictions on how many foreign players they could field in one game, thereby limiting expenditure on players and instead forcing teams to focus on youth development and talent from inside the country.

However, they then decided to remove such limitations and let clubs choose how many foreigners they fielded, a decision that has led to clubs investing heavily in foreign talent, thereby even impeding the development of players from certain countries as a result of lesser opportunities and more competition.

Additionally, they invited the world’s billionaires into the footballing world, as affluent businessmen started investing in clubs, buying their majority shares with the knowledge that they would have the license to spend as much as they pleased and the ability to scour for talent from across the globe.

Now, many of Europe’s superpowers like Manchester City, Chelsea, and Paris Saint-Germain are bankrolled by billionaires, while club football in itself has become a money game, where heavy investments have proved to provide handsome returns. A far cry from the time when clubs had to pick and choose who they bought, given the restrictions that were placed on them.