Algerian football federation has reversed its last year’s decision to ban foreign players from the country’s topflight starting 2017/18 season.
Clubs will again be allowed to sign foreign players with the number pegged at two and must be thirty years and below.
“As of the 2017/18 season, Ligue 1 Mobilis clubs may once recruit foreign players. The number of foreign players may not exceed two, and those signed may not be over the age of thirty,” the FA’s statement reads partly.
The ban was imposed under the immediate former president of the federation Mohammed Raouraoua, who rationalised the decision by questioning clubs’ recruitment record.
“Forty-six percent of the twenty eight foreign players have played less than half of the season.
“The idea behind signing foreign players is that they are supposed to contribute. There are even two players who have not played a single minute,” Raouraoua was quoted by the BBC in 2016.
Raouraoua stand down as the AFF president in March this year with 52-year-old former player and businessman Kheireddine Zetchi assuming the seat unopposed.
The lifting of the ban comes as a reprieve for clubs like MC Alger who were vehemently opposed to it, as they had a good number of foreigners within their ranks and felt the federation was meddling in the running of clubs.
For players like Cameroonian Azongha Tembeng of ES Satif, they can now breathe easy and worry less about their next moves.
