Foreign players flood Southeast Asia, local players are unemployed

The national championships called Super League of Indonesia and Malaysia from the 2025-2026 season have both increased the quota of foreign players to dizzying levels, making it increasingly difficult for local players to survive.

Indonesian players have to go down to the lower leagues to find work because foreign players dominate the airwaves.

Recently, the Indonesian Professional Footballers Association (APPI) reacted strongly to the fact that the country's national championship, with its new name Super League, allows each club to register up to 11 foreign players, putting local players at risk of unemployment.

Naturalized Malaysian players are finding their way back to the domestic league, causing a massive increase in the number of foreign players.

Photo: Ngoc Linh

In the 2025-2026 season, Indonesia's Liga 1 will be renamed the Super League, with Takeyuki Oya, former J-League (Japan) CEO and general manager in charge. The tournament will be upgraded to a new level, with a total of 18 participating clubs, each club allowed to register up to 11 foreign players and field 8 players. Last season, there were only 8 foreign players and 6 players who could play.

In addition to the significant increase in the number of foreign players, naturalized Indonesian players who have recently been unemployed at foreign clubs are also looking for a way to return to the archipelago to join local teams. Most recently, 3/6 naturalized players of the Indonesian national team, Jordi Amat, Rafael Struick and Shayne Pattynama, found a home in the domestic league and 1 person went to Thai-League 1. Specifically, Jordi Amat joined Persija Jakarta, Rafael Struick went to Dewa United (both of the Indonesian Super League), while Shayne Pattynama was recruited by Thailand's top club Buriram United. This could be a trend in the near future, when other naturalized players from this country can no longer stay at clubs in Europe.

This situation has led to an increasing number of foreign and naturalized players at top clubs in Indonesia. This also means that local players are increasingly unable to perform, many have had their contracts terminated, become unemployed and have had to find clubs in lower leagues to compete.

"Increasing the number of foreign players in Super League clubs to 11 will be detrimental to local talent. This policy will further erode the playing time of domestic players. They will no longer have many opportunities to play in the starting lineup and on the field. As a result, they will no longer have the opportunity to represent the national team," APPI President Andritany Ardhiyasa said.

"If the 18 Super League clubs maximize their quota of 11 foreign players, 198 local players will lose their jobs or have to move to the Championship (Indonesia's first division). This also means that 198 players in the Championship will have to go down to the lower division to play or move to become amateur players in the third division," APPI said, predicting that this situation will cause the domestic football development system to collapse.

Malaysia Super League increases to 15 foreign players

Malaysian football is following Indonesia's lead in both the national team's naturalization policy and increasing the foreign player quota for clubs in the Super League from the 2025-2026 season, allowing each team to register up to 15 foreign players, including 1 Asian and 2 Southeast Asian players. This tournament has 13 participating clubs, but is focusing all its strength on the 2 most potential teams, Johor Darul Ta'zim and Selangor FC.

The expansion of the number of foreign and naturalized players, mainly concentrated in Johor Darul Ta'zim Club, has also caused concern among Malaysian football experts because of the huge gap between clubs. This has led to the lack of attractiveness of the country's Super League, not to mention making the domestic football system unable to develop synchronously.

Meanwhile, Thai-League 1 next season has a slight change when registering a maximum of 7 foreign players and no limit on the number of players from Southeast Asia. Last season, 9 foreign players were registered, but there was only 1 Asian slot and no more than 3 players from the region.

Similarly, the 2025-2026 V-League of Vietnam allows the registration of 4 foreign players, with a maximum of 3 players allowed to play at the same time. Only clubs competing in regional and continental tournaments are allowed to register 7 foreign players, but are only allowed to register 4 players for each match. Last season, the corresponding numbers of foreign players registered were 3 and played 2 matches, plus 2 slots for overseas Vietnamese players who have not been naturalized. Clubs competing in regional and continental tournaments are allowed to register 2 more foreign players.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/ngoai-binh-tran-ngap-dong-nam-a-cau-thu-ban-dia-that-nghiep-185250709214822051.htm