{"id":9034,"date":"2023-11-20T22:21:10","date_gmt":"2023-11-20T16:51:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/baysidesports.com\/football\/2023\/11\/20\/kerala-premier-league-starts-new-life-without-foreign-players\/"},"modified":"2023-11-20T22:21:10","modified_gmt":"2023-11-20T16:51:10","slug":"kerala-premier-league-starts-new-life-without-foreign-players","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baysidesports.com\/football\/2023\/11\/20\/kerala-premier-league-starts-new-life-without-foreign-players\/","title":{"rendered":"Kerala Premier League starts new life without foreign players"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Nigerian Ezekiel Oroh played a prominent role as Kerala United FC won its maiden Kerala Premier League (KPL) title at Kalpetta in March. He also walked away with the player of the tournament award while Gokulam Kerala\u2019s Samuel Mensah, from Ghana, finished as the league\u2019s top goal-getter.<\/p>\n<p>Foreign players have sparkled in the KPL for the last 10 years but as the league\u2019s 11th edition begins at Malappuram\u2019s Kottapadi Stadium on Saturday, they will all be missing this time.<\/p>\n<p>ALSO READ: <a href=\"https:\/\/sportstar.thehindu.com\/football\/indian-football\/arsene-wenger-fifa-aiff-kalyan-chaubey-academy-bhubaneswar-youth-development-indian-football-news\/article67554358.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Very optimistic about what India can achieve in football, says Arsene Wenger<\/a><\/p>\n<p>In April, the All India Football Federation (AIFF) had decided not to allow foreign players in State or district leagues and this will be the first KPL without them.<\/p>\n<p>So how will the KPL, currently Kerala\u2019s top league since the Kerala Super League is yet to start, be without them?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe big gap will be in the strikers\u2019 section, the goals will come down,\u201d Navas Meeran, the Kerala Football Association president, told Sportstar.<\/p>\n<h4 class=\"sub_head\">FOREIGNERS MANAGE THE FLOW OF THE GAME BETTER<\/h4>\n<p>Meanwhile Muhammed Noufal, the captain of KPL defending champion Kerala United, feels that things will not be easy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLast year, having two foreign midfielders and a striker was beneficial for us because foreigners have the experience to manage the rhythm of the game,\u201d said the 31-year-old centre-back from Kasargod.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLife without foreign players is a problem but we have very talented youngsters, some with even I-League experience, who can help us recover. I think we can manage.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"verticle article-picture center\">\n<div class=\"pic-caption\"> Muhammed Noufal, the captain of KPL defending champion Kerala United, feels foreign players manage the rhythm of the game better.<br \/>\n| Photo Credit:<br \/>\nStan Rayan\/ Sportstar\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"caption\">\nMuhammed Noufal, the captain of KPL defending champion Kerala United, feels foreign players manage the rhythm of the game better.<br \/>\n| Photo Credit:<br \/>\nStan Rayan\/ Sportstar\n<\/p>\n<p>However, the AIFF\u2019s move should help KPL teams breathe easier on the financial front.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWithout foreign players, we can bring down our budget by some 40 per cent&#8230;by around Rs 15 lakh,\u201d said Shameem Backer, the owner of Wayanad United FC which stunningly topped the KPL\u2019s super six stage and entered the semifinal last year.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While the KPL will be without foreigners, the big-budget Kerala Super League \u2013 which is likely to start late next year \u2013 will have them.<\/p>\n<p>A couple of weeks after passing the no-foreigners-in-the-State-leagues rule, the AIFF gave the KSL an exemption in late April as a special case.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey (the KFA) have been given an exemption because of the prior commercial deal they have signed to start the Kerala Super League. We don\u2019t want them to rescind an agreement made earlier and we don\u2019t want to jeopardise any commercial deal,\u201d Shaji Prabhakaran, the then AIFF secretary general, had told Sportstar in April<\/p>\n<div class=\"comments-shares share-page\">\n<p class=\"comments\">\nComments\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The AIFF decision to stop foreign participation could bring down the team\u2019s budget by 40 per cent, says Wayanad FC owner Shameem Backer<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-football-sport-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baysidesports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baysidesports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baysidesports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baysidesports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9034"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/baysidesports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9034\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baysidesports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baysidesports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baysidesports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}