155 FIFA members have voted in favour of a proposal aimed at limiting the number of foreign players who can start a football match to five by 2012. The fact that most of the members of the world football governing organisation favour this ruling (only five voted against) reflects the wish of the national federations to protect the development of the game at a national level.

A lot has been said about this ruling which is likely to herald a confrontation between FIFA + UEFA and the European Union.

In 1995, a rather unknown Belgian player, Jean-Marc Bosman, was the subject of a decision taken by the European Court of Justice. The Bosman ruling banned restrictions on players from EU member states within the national leagues and allowed such professional football players in the EU to move freely to another club at the end of their term of contract with their present team. This ruling also prohibited domestic football leagues in EU member states and also UEFA from imposing quotas on foreign players that discriminated against EU nationals.

This led to a situation where a lot of clubs within the EU field more than 7, 8 players who are foreigners. We also saw cases where players from outside the European Union got an EU passport following their blood linkage to some distant relative within the EU.

The most quoted example to prove the failure of the Bosman ruling is the situation in England. While English clubs having many foreign players are thriving in terms of awards and money, the national team has failed in international competitions. Recently published statistics have shown that only 170 of the 498 players who started matches in the top flight in 2007-08 were English - just 34.1% of the total. In 2006-07 191 (38%) of the starters were English. In 2001 the number of English players was 207.

The fact that some clubs can afford expensive foreign players has created a new league of teams and with it a new level of disparity among the clubs.

Given this situation the major football organisations had sought a way to reinstate a balance and protect the development of the game.

The 6+5 ruling is the result.

However, its implementation in the EU is going to be a tough task. The European Union has already stated that this rule infringes the freedom of movement of workers within the bloc. Therefore, a legal showdown looms.

I really hope that common sense and the ‘love for the game’ prevail over business interests in the discussions which will definitely take place in the coming weeks.