Palkin warns against reversing foreign player cap: 'Don't drag us back to the Soviet era'

Shakhtar Donetsk CEO Serhiy Palkin has fired back at clubs pushing to scrap the Ukrainian Premier League's recently liberalized foreign player rule — a move he says would freeze Ukrainian football in the past. The Ukrainian Association of Football (UAF) approved a change allowing teams to field up to seven foreign players simultaneously plus one with an EU passport, who no longer counts as a foreigner. The new rule was meant to reflect reciprocal agreements with European leagues. But a group of UPL clubs, led by Dynamo Kyiv, are lobbying to restore the old system: a flat limit of seven foreigners on the pitch with no EU exception. “When arguments run out, bans usually appear,” Palkin said in a lengthy statement. He praised the UAF for working to make it easier for Ukrainian players to move to Europe and for opening the domestic league to EU nationals in return. “This is a clear example of forward thinking, integration and strategic decisions.” According to Palkin, the conservative position — preserving restrictions without reform — is a dead end. “Shakhtar is categorically against any move that locks in the current model. Artificial barriers are a path to nowhere, an attempt to build a closed system instead of open competition.” He backed his stance with hard data. Since 2010, Ukraine’s national team has failed to qualify for a single World Cup, while 22 different European nations have made it to at least one tournament in the same period. Ukraine also sits 25th in UEFA’s club coefficient rankings. “If the limit actually helped our players and national team, we would have seen results on the pitch. The facts show the opposite,” Palkin argued. He also referenced Shakhtar president Rinat Akhmetov, who in a Guardian interview rejected proposals to artificially limit Paris Saint-Germain after their heavy spending. “You can’t achieve progress by weakening the strongest. That applies here too,” Palkin added.