Ravshan Kulob coach Mami Nazarzadeh criticizes new AFC Champions League Two foreigners rule

Ravshan Kulob will meet Mohun Bagan in their first group-stage match.

FC Ravshan Kulob will pose the first major threat to Mohun Bagan Super Giant at the start of the 2024-25 AFC Champions League Two (ACL Two) campaign. The two will meet each other for the first time in the respective clubs’ history at the Salt Lake Stadium on Wednesday (18th September) and the Tajikistani side will be pushing for a positive start to the campaign.

Ravshan are currently in fifth place in the ongoing Tajik League, having won seven of their 15 matches. But they’ll get more leverage in terms of the ability to use all the foreign players in their squad due to the AFC’s newest rules. The federation has confirmed that there is no more a limit on the foreign players that any team can use in the ACL Two, giving teams a chance to field all the foreigners in their squad at the same time.

Ravshan Kulob’s manager Mami Nazarzadeh has a rather interesting theory when it comes to the impact that this removal of foreign players restrictions will bring for teams. He believes that it’ll allow teams to play to their best ability with more foreign talents, but overall it will be a setback for the holistic development of domestic players of countries like Tajikistan or India – whose homegrown talents are still trying to find a way to fight with the best in Asia.

He remarked ahead of the game: “Probably it’ll affect teams in the coming matches in upcoming tournaments. But generally in terms of strategic goals, it’s not good as we have restrictions in our domestic tournaments in order to get our talents and give opportunities for the domestic players to shine.

“There are foreigner restrictions in Tajikistan (we can only use five foreigners in Tajikistan League) and Iran. It’s good that we can use all our foreign players in the AFC Champions League Two and the team will be able to show its best qualities. But generally, for countries like Tajikistan and India who are on the stages of developing their footballing quality, it’s not a good idea to removing all barriers in terms of the usage of foreign players for a team.”

But the Ravshan tactician also confirmed later on that his squad currently has seven foreign players, who are all available to play against Mohun Bagan. That is why the Mariners can expect a challenging task against the Tajikistan side and it’ll be a challenge for the Mohun Bagan domestic players to prove their quality in the continental competition.

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