Samuel Eto’o and Toure Yaya will no longer occupy places as non-European Union players after the Spanish Football Federation took the decision to accept an agreement signed in 2000 between the European Union and African, Caribbean and Pacific states which affects the players of 77 states.
This means that players from these countries that play in Spain will be considered as EU players. Barça are the club who benefit most from this ruling, having two players affected. Barça now have no non-EU players after Ronaldinho and Giovani dos Santos completed their double nationality in August. http://fcbnews.com/ronaldinho-obtains-double-nationality/
The following six players have also benefitted from the ruling: Diarra (Real Madrid), Ikechukwu Uche (Getafe), Kalou Uche (Almeria), Kone (Sevilla), Ettien (Levante) and Webo (Mallorca).
3 responses so far ↓
Nick // Oct 7, 2007 at 9:25
Are there really only these eight African players playing in the Liga?
Nic // Oct 7, 2007 at 9:53
Here’s my source Nick http://www.elmundodeportivo.es/web/gen/20071006/noticia_53400430053.html The story also ran in El Sport.
I presume that there are only eight from the affected states, I’m afraid I haven’t yet found a list of which states are included on the list. There are definitely other African players but I think they must all have double nationality, mainly French. Freddie Kanoute for example plays for Mali but was born in France. Kameni the Espanyol goalie was born in Cameroon but has a French passport.
fry00001 // Oct 7, 2007 at 21:36
no no no… you dont understand… these are the only eight players affected… meaning they have been living in europe for 4 + or how ever many years it is. there are others that are still concidered african
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