National team head coach complains about foreign player quota at Thai clubs

In an interview with Thailand's Siam Sport newspaper, head coach Masatada Ishii expressed his dissatisfaction with the use of foreign players by football clubs in this country.

Coach Masatada Ishii has led the Thai team for 2 years - Photo: BANGKOKPOST

Thailand recently ended the King's Cup friendly tournament they hosted with a 0-1 defeat to Iraq. Besides the noisy controversy over the fight between the two teams, head coach Ishii also created a stir with his statements aimed at the tournament structure.

"Currently, the Thai League has too many foreign player slots for each club. This makes Thai players, especially strikers and midfielders, ineligible to compete.

"The lack of experience playing in a competitive environment directly affects the development of players, as well as the national team," Siam Sport quoted Mr. Ishii.

This can be seen as a direct criticism directed at the Football Association of Thailand (FAT) as well as the Organizing Committee of the Thai National Championship (Thai League).

From 2024, Thai League will make important changes to the foreign player registration rules, applied from the 2025-2026 season. That is, the limit on the number of foreign players will be increased from 5 to 7, and there will be no limit on Southeast Asian players.

This is a huge change, causing great controversy in the Thai football community. Many Thai clubs immediately bought foreign players en masse, and expanded the number of foreign players to the maximum.

Some teams participating in continental tournaments even buy more than that, to register to compete in the AFC Champions League - where there is no limit on the number of foreign players.

A typical example is Buriram United. In addition to the list of 7 foreign players registered for the Thai League season 2025-2026, they also have 4 Southeast Asian players, and 5 more Western foreign players who are not registered.

That means when entering the AFC Champions League, Buriram can field a team consisting entirely of foreign players, and even the bench is made up of foreign players.

This has long created controversy in the Thai football community, before receiving criticism from the national team's head coach himself.

HUY DANG

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/hlv-truong-tuyen-quoc-gia-phan-nan-ti-le-suat-ngoai-binh-o-cac-clb-thai-lan-20250908162133503.htm