The Liga Endesa has announced changes in its import rulings from next season with the aim to discourage players from chasing supposed pointless passports.
The new changes to what many believe is the top basketball league in the world outside of the NBA comes as a result of Fuenlabrada player Andy Panko and Real Madrid’s Marcus Slaughter owning the same passport number belonging to the nation of Equatorial Guinea.
Once the error was noticed, the Spanish authorities were immediately notified by the FEB [Spanish Basketball Federation] to clarify that there were no signs of forgery and that this was a genuine human error.
The Liga Endesa and the Spanish Federation have voted a new regulation that will cut the number of signings under the Bosman ruling, which bans restrictions on foreign players belonging to the European Union within national leagues and allowed players in the EU to move to another club at the end of a contract without a transfer fee being made.
Spain has two sets of rules for this current campaign:
2014/15 – Roster with 11 players: 4 Spanish, 5 Bosmans, 2 non-Bosman imports.
2014/15 – Roster with 12 players: 5 Spanish, 5 Bosmans, 2 non-Bosman imports.
It looks extremely likely that the Spanish league will accept rosters with a maximum of 12 players, including three Bosman players and four non-Bosman imports from next season.
And if that comes into play, there might be slight differences in the competitiveness of the Liga Endesa on the whole, despite established Euroleague sides like Barcelona, Laboral Kutxa, Unicaja Malaga and this season’s champions Real Madrid having more financial stability than the other sides.
Real Madrid’s Jaycee Carroll [Azerbaijan] and KC Rivers [Equatorial Guinea] are known Liga Endesa players that own non-EU passports.
