Number of foreign players in national championships in Southeast Asia

From the controversy over the number of foreign players in the 2025-2026 V-League, let's look at how the top national championships in Southeast Asia use foreign players with Tuoi Tre Online.

Lucas Crispim - one of the most notable foreign players of Thai-League - Photo: BURIRAM

On July 9, the 2025-2026 Malaysian National Championship (M-League) announced its decision on the use of new foreign players. Accordingly, teams are allowed to register 15 foreign players, including 12 open players (outside Asia and ASEAN), 1 Asian foreign player, and 2 players from ASEAN.

However, teams in the M-League are only allowed to register 9 foreign players in 1 match and put 6 players on the field at the same time.

Even though the M-League organizers have expanded the number of foreign players to such a "huge" number, most teams cannot use them all.

Johor Darul Ta'zim - the strongest team in Malaysia at the moment - has only registered 11/15 foreign players. Johor Darul Ta'zim has strong financial potential and also participates in many arenas, so they have reason to register many foreign players.

Using almost all foreign players helps Johor Darul Ta'zim seemingly have no rivals in the M-League. Also thanks to the strong foreign force, Johor Darul Ta'zim has continuously made its mark in the continental arena in recent years.

Similarly, the Indonesian Championship (Liga 1) also allows a "huge" number of foreign players. Specifically, clubs are allowed to register up to 11 foreign players, and allow 8 of them to play at the same time. Similar to the M-League, most teams in Liga 1 cannot use the maximum of 11 foreign players.

In the Thai League, teams will be allowed to register up to 7 foreign players and no limit on ASEAN players. On the field, teams will use up to 5 foreign players and 2 ASEAN players. In fact, this number has been reduced compared to the previous season. The 2024-2025 Thai League will be allowed to register 9 foreign players, including 1 AFC player and no more than 3 ASEAN players.

It can be seen that the top national championships in Southeast Asia all have a lot of foreign player slots. This is theoretically very beneficial for the development of the national championships, but at the same time it also leads to many consequences. One of which is that local players will have less opportunity to play.

NOSTALGIA

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/so-luong-ngoai-binh-cac-giai-vo-dich-quoc-gia-o-dong-nam-a-20250711111816993.htm