Foreign Rules?

Now that it looks like the FIVB is set on cutting down the number of non-native players in leagues all over the world, I thought it would be interesting to throw some totally un-researched, non-expert observations and predictions out there.

First, I can’t believe the FIVB is in favor of a rule that limits the amount of foreigners to three per team and two on the court at the same time. Make no mistake, unless the price for a transfer goes up, this will affect the FIVB’s bottom line. They make a small amount of money on every foreign player that plays professionally. For them to advocate a rule that cuts down on their own profits (especially considering the FIVB’s reputation) is unheard of.

Second, I’m not sure that this rule change will do what they expect it to. At first glance, I thought it was a pretty good idea. No question, there are a lot of teams in Europe that wouldn’t be where they are today without heavily relying on foreign talent. But, does limiting the amount of foreigners translate into a strengthening of the home countries’ national programs? I’m not so sure. And these are the reasons why:

If the talent is not there, it’s just not there. Some countries are just not ever going to be world powers in volleyball. Japan is probably the best example of this. By all accounts, they have the best training methods, they have a huge fan base, a surplus of players and their league restricts each team to only one foreign born player. How good is their national team? Good. But. Not. Great. Even though their national team already has this rule in place and they have every advantage possible, they will never be the favorites to win the world championships. Now, I’ll happily admit that volleyball is thriving in Japan and if the goal of this FIVB rule change was to make volleyball thrive all over the world then perhaps I would agree that the change is a good idea. That is not, however, the stated purpose of the rule. It is to strengthen the national teams, and homegrown talent, in the respective countries around the world by getting more playing time for players who are born in the country they are playing in.

There is a big difference between a competitive league on a high level and a competitive league where all the participants are terrible. This is where the argument hits home. What would the Danish elite division look like right now without foreign support? Middelfart – gone. Marienlyst – slightly weaker. Gentofte – same. Aarhus volley – gone. ASV Aarhus – same. Hvidovre – same. Aalborg – same. So, the elite would be five teams or seven teams with two more teams that are playing in the first division right now. The league would be competitive, but would it be good?

Some people might ask what the league would look like if no foreigners had ever come to Denmark. And that is a fair question that would probably take some time to answer. But, I would argue that the league would not be better off in terms of the level of volleyball.

The problem is that this argument can be extended to a lot of countries. Sweden would be in trouble. Germany would be in trouble. Belgium would be in trouble. Etc…

Overall, changing the rule for foreigners will mean a huge shift in the strength of a lot of leagues. Yes, there will be a lot of space for homegrown talent to step in and prove what they can do. This is great in places like Italy, France or Russia where there is a huge pool of talent to pull from. Other countries will not be so lucky. So, some leagues will all of a sudden be bad in relation to what they have previously been. Maybe, and it’s a big maybe, they will build themselves back up in the space of a five or ten years as new talent develops. But, is the risk worth it? Some leagues might never be good without foreign players.

It seems to me that the free market regulates the foreign player consumption around the world, why put artificial restrictions on that? If a player is good enough, trains hard enough and wants it enough, they will get their chance eventually whether they are foreign or native. More than anything, what I think is important is that volleyball overall is being played on the highest level possible. More top notch competition creates more top notch players and that is what volleyball needs. More top notch players means a bigger talent pool to draw from for national teams. If a volleyball player thinks that they are being cheated out of playing time by a foreigner then they should play harder (or better) and find a way to get on the court.