1993/94 double team

stubie

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Had the foreigner rule not applied back in the early 90’s would that great side of 1993/94 won the Champions League or come close that season?

Obviously there were some brilliant sides back then such as Barcelona and Milan but that United team was special.
 

McGrathsipan

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The foreigner rule is a mad concept. 25 years later and it's now the home grown player rule.
 

JohnnyKills

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Had the foreigner rule not applied back in the early 90’s would that great side of 1993/94 won the Champions League or come close that season?

Obviously there were some brilliant sides back then such as Barcelona and Milan but that United team was special.
Don't think so. Even with the foreigners we were nowhere near as good as the teams you mention. It's hard to over-emphasise just how dominant Serie A was back then.
 

Amir

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We had great qualities but I don't think we were good all-around as the best sides back then and were probably lacking in the sort of tactics and discipline that were inherent in the european sides but not in England.
 

Cockney Phil

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It was a problem rule because suddenly Irish and Scots players were all foreigners, which cut into the squad’s traditional demographics. I recall Fergie attacked the rule at every opportunity. It was not the reason why we failed in Europe - there were some incredible games against great teams and players.
 

Deglobalise Football

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I loved that foreigner rule. They should really, really bring it back so other domestic leagues stand a chance to actually flourish like they did before globalisation ruined the game.
 

davidmichael

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Schmeichel, Parker, Pallister, Bruce, Irwin, Kanchelskis, Keane, Ince, Giggs, Cantona, Hughes. You look at that team and having to pick only three non English players it’s easy to see how much that hurt us back then.

I’ve always believed we’d have won at least one Champions League with that team as it had literally everything, I think the only two teams that were arguably better were Barca and AC Milan although I think that Barca team peaked in 1992 so with our best team available I’d have fancied us to beat them.
 

sun_tzu

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Had the foreigner rule not applied back in the early 90’s would that great side of 1993/94 won the Champions League or come close that season?

Obviously there were some brilliant sides back then such as Barcelona and Milan but that United team was special.
had the foreigner rule not applied in 93/94 teams like Milan would probably have brought another 3 or 4 world class players - there was so much more money in the Italian Game at the time I dont think we would have come close to competing
 

André Dominguez

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I loved that foreigner rule. They should really, really bring it back so other domestic leagues stand a chance to actually flourish like they did before globalisation ruined the game.
Hard not to agree. With the max 3 foreign player in starting 11 rule would guarantee that talent would be more spread all over the world.

La Liga still kind of uses it, as you can only have a max of 3 non-EU players on the pitch simultaneously and I think there's a max 5 non-EU players in the roster rules.
 

Gio

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I think there was a gulf between United and Barcelona/Milan that year, as shown by the head-to-head with Barcelona. They too had to wrestle with the rule with Koeman, Laudrup, Romario and Stoichkov on the books. The mismatch wasn't purely about quality because that United side had a lot going for it, but also about wily experience and game management that Milan were streets ahead of everyone else in at that time.
 

Chipper

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Hard not to agree. With the max 3 foreign player in starting 11 rule would guarantee that talent would be more spread all over the world.

La Liga still kind of uses it, as you can only have a max of 3 non-EU players on the pitch simultaneously and I think there's a max 5 non-EU players in the roster rules.
From my time playing Football Manager that sounds about right. There are some easy workarounds too.

Players from countries who signed the Cotonou Agreement also count as EU. That's pretty much all of the Caribbean, sub-Saharan Africa and some minor Pacific nations.

All South and Central American players (Ibero American) can get fast-tracked Spanish passports after two years as well. On top of other obvious reasons it's another reason why South Americans move to Spain often. Sign them up at 18 (no special work permit requirements like in the Premier League) - play them if ready, move them to your B team if you have the space or loan them to another Spanish side for 2 years if not and at 20 they're a Spanish citizen if they apply.

Edit: Then there's stuff like Coutinho being able to get a Portuguese passport when he moved to Barcelona because of his wife. Suarez was able to become Italian as well.
 
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AKDevil

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Loved this team. Probably my favourite United team. The amount of times I’ve watched this season review haha!
 

Snow

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Hard not to agree. With the max 3 foreign player in starting 11 rule would guarantee that talent would be more spread all over the world.

La Liga still kind of uses it, as you can only have a max of 3 non-EU players on the pitch simultaneously and I think there's a max 5 non-EU players in the roster rules.
You say that as a Portuguese. The foreigner rule is massively unbalanced. It favors countries where people already have dual passports or have an easier time getting a 2nd nationality. Not every country even allows dual citizenship.
 

Stobzilla

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If obviously Scottish, Irish, Welsh didn't count as foreign, but the rule still being in place then we would have been able to field:

Big Pete

Parker
Pallister
Bruce
Irwin

Kanchelskis
Keane
Ince
Giggs

Cantona
Hughes

Who wouldn't have gotten spanked 4-0 in the Nou Camp at the very least. Probably would have done the business in Galatasary and Gothenburg and gotten us one of the "best second place" spots. After that, who knows. It wasn't so much the foreign rule, just the application of it.
 

markhughes

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We had a great team back then which was built to win in a very physical and fast league. Fergie hadn't figured out Europe at that point and our style didnt translate to European football.

Once we learned to control games and play at a slower pace with a packed midfield we started to have more success in Europe, at least that is how I remember it with my old brain.
 

André Dominguez

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You say that as a Portuguese. The foreigner rule is massively unbalanced. It favors countries where people already have dual passports or have an easier time getting a 2nd nationality. Not every country even allows dual citizenship.
It didn't favor Brazilians back then. They had to do fake marriages to contour the rule.
We just have different working visa rules now. You basically just need a minimum 1 year term contract or to acquire a gold visa to work and live here.
 

André Dominguez

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From my time playing Football Manager that sounds about right. There are some easy workarounds too.

Players from countries who signed the Cotonou Agreement also count as EU. That's pretty much all of the Caribbean, sub-Saharan Africa and some minor Pacific nations.

All South and Central American players (Ibero American) can get fast-tracked Spanish passports after two years as well. On top of other obvious reasons it's another reason why South Americans move to Spain often. Sign them up at 18 (no special work permit requirements like in the Premier League) - play them if ready, move them to your B team if you have the space or loan them to another Spanish side for 2 years if not and at 20 they're a Spanish citizen if they apply.

Edit: Then there's stuff like Coutinho being able to get a Portuguese passport when he moved to Barcelona because of his wife. Suarez was able to become Italian as well.
The same in PT, that if you're from a PALOP country member, easier to get passport.
The special work permit has also to do with working visas. For example, if the UK has lack of nurses, working visas will not be a problem if you come from a country where your graduation is recognized.
 

harms

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Barca and AC Milan were better, but then CL is not won by the best team every year.
 

11101

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The Milan team in 1994:

Rossi
Tassoti - Costacurta - Baresi - Maldini
Donadoni - Albertini - Desailly - Savicevic
Simone (or an ailing Van Basten) - Massaro

They embarrassed Barcelona in the CL final with half their team out injured or suspended. We had a great team in 1994 but we were never beating that.
 

Snow

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It didn't favor Brazilians back then. They had to do fake marriages to contour the rule.
We just have different working visa rules now. You basically just need a minimum 1 year term contract or to acquire a gold visa to work and live here.
I am talking about it being unbalanced now since you said that you'd like the rule back.
 

Sandikan

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Ah that 93/94 team, my absolute favourite United team.

Proper old fashioned 4-4-2, where midfielders can actually do it all, before all this "holding" midfielder, and 3 in midfield sh!te kicked in.

Two pacy exciting wingers, playing on their proper side to cross it, unlike this "Inverted" winger bullcrap.

More importantly, two proper strikers, so crosses actually had more chance of being effective too.

But what a team, hard as nails down the centre, loads of "captains" in there. Robbo as backup.
Sharpey backing up the wingers.

Superb times.

Although the "surprising" stat is that the famous 11 of the lineup only actually started a mere handful of games together!
 

Class of 63

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If obviously Scottish, Irish, Welsh didn't count as foreign, but the rule still being in place then we would have been able to field:

Big Pete

Parker
Pallister
Bruce
Irwin

Kanchelskis
Keane
Ince
Giggs

Cantona
Hughes

Who wouldn't have gotten spanked 4-0 in the Nou Camp at the very least. Probably would have done the business in Galatasary and Gothenburg and gotten us one of the "best second place" spots. After that, who knows. It wasn't so much the foreign rule, just the application of it.
Eight of that those would walk into the current team, happy dayz
 

FujiVice

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Most entertaining United side ever for me. Sadly, though, that team was a great side, but McClair, Hughes, Bruce and Parker were coming to the end of their careers, there wasnt much depth to play the 60-odd games we'd have to play in all competitions during that era. Also, Fergie wasnt quite as slick with the different styles that would come to Old Trafford in the European Cup back then. We always used to run into trouble.

In 94-95, I doubt we'd have gone on to win it for the reasons mentioned, but if Cantona wasnt banned for 4/5 matches, Giggs was fit and we didnt have to pick and choose due to that dumb rule, we'd have certainly got through to the knockouts.
 

Amir

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If obviously Scottish, Irish, Welsh didn't count as foreign, but the rule still being in place then we would have been able to field:

Big Pete

Parker
Pallister
Bruce
Irwin

Kanchelskis
Keane
Ince
Giggs

Cantona
Hughes

Who wouldn't have gotten spanked 4-0 in the Nou Camp at the very least. Probably would have done the business in Galatasary and Gothenburg and gotten us one of the "best second place" spots. After that, who knows. It wasn't so much the foreign rule, just the application of it.
I don't remember exactly how it worked, but it was possible to use more than three foreign players under the assimilated players rule. In that 4-0, for instance, Cantona was out and we chose not to use Schmeichel, but we had Irwin, Kanchelskis, Keane, Hughes and Giggs. In Sweden we had Irwin, Cantona, Kanchelskis, Hughes and McClair.

The foreign rule did hamper us, of course, but a little less than we remember.
 

Bobski

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Utd were not good enough defensively at that point to win it. Bruce especially was a major problem with how slow he was, made Maguire look like Bolt.
 

Class of 63

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I don't remember exactly how it worked, but it was possible to use more than three foreign players under the assimilated players rule. In that 4-0, for instance, Cantona was out and we chose not to use Schmeichel, but we had Irwin, Kanchelskis, Keane, Hughes and Giggs. In Sweden we had Irwin, Cantona, Kanchelskis, Hughes and McClair.

The foreign rule did hamper us, of course, but a little less than we remember.
Yeah it was 3+2 at the time, it gave some wiggle-room but....

And it was partially United's fault, if we hadn't won the CWC in 91 the powers that be(most didn't want English clubs back in European competitions so soon after Heysel) wouldn't have been so eager to push the ruling through.
 

Josh 76

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This team was so good, they even made a song about it.
 
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Amir

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Utd were not good enough defensively at that point to win it. Bruce especially was a major problem with how slow he was, made Maguire look like Bolt.
True. And it was enough of a problem that Fergie moved Parker to centerhalf instead of Bruce to try and handle Romario in that 2-2 in 1994/95. Didn't quite work out...
 

PickledRed

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Post-ban, English teams were broadly out of their depth in Europe for several years with the occasional high point. Not just Italian and Spanish teams were difficult, Scandinavia produced strong sides as well as the French. United were competitive but not really at the races for the best part of the 90s.
 

Andycoleno9

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The Milan team in 1994:

Rossi
Tassoti - Costacurta - Baresi - Maldini
Donadoni - Albertini - Desailly - Savicevic
Simone (or an ailing Van Basten) - Massaro

They embarrassed Barcelona in the CL final with half their team out injured or suspended. We had a great team in 1994 but we were never beating that.
:drool::drool:
 

Robertd0803

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The 2 Champions Lesgue winning teams we had took a few years to figure out Europe, at the time the likes of Milan were miles ahead of game management.

But yeah that limit on foreign players was stupid anyway.
 

Deglobalise Football

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The foreigner rule really hampers teams.

Milan can only field their Dutch Trio
, stupid rule
So what? The other foreign players can either find a spot for foreign players on another team, or they can go back to their home country and help build and popularise the domestic game there.

Clubs can't stockpile foreign talent any more. Boo-hoo. Enhance your own domestic talents, or buy them.