Lega Serie A President confirms change to non-EU players rule

Lega Serie A President Lorenzo Casini has confirmed that as of the 2024-25 campaign, there will be a significant change to the league’s rule on registering non-EU players.

The current rule states that Serie A clubs are allowed to register up to two non-EU players per season, one of which had to be a replacement for an outgoing non-EU player.

However, from next season onwards, teams will be allowed to register two non-EU players per season without having to replace an already existing non-EU player, as Casini confirmed upon the conclusion of Tuesday’s meeting of the Lega council.

Take Inter as an example in Serie A

Recently crowned Serie A champions Inter provide a good example of the upcoming rule change.

In the 2022-23 season, the Nerazzurri sold Cameroonian goalkeeper Andre Onana to Manchester United. In turn, they were then able to register two new non-EU players, as they had cleared up a spot in their squad. Thus, they brought in Chilean Alexis Sanchez that summer, and then Canada international Tajon Buchanan in January.

Theoretically, if Inter had kept hold of Onana, and assuming they didn’t sell any other non-EU player, they would not have been able to register Buchanan, as there would not have been any available slots.

Importantly, non-EU players who were already based in Italy do not count as a newly registered non-EU player. Alexis Sanchez does, as he was based in France, playing for Marseille, prior to his Inter return.