ISL 2018-19: How have Pune City signed eighth foreign player?

Nisanth V Easwar

ISL 2018-19: How have Pune City signed eighth foreign player? image

The player regulations for the fifth season of Indian Super League (ISL) allows each club to register a maximum of seven foreign players. However, on Thursday, FC Pune City roped in Spaniard Jonathan Vila as their eighth foreign player in the squad.

Pune City signed Iain Hume, Martin Diaz, Matt Mills and Jonathan Vila this summer and retained last season's star performers Marcelinho, Emiliano Alfaro, Marko Stankovic and Diego Carlos. 

While there exists no limit on the number of foreign players that an ISL club add to their squad in general, only seven from that list can be part of the club's ISL squad and play league games. This means that one player out of Stallions ' list of foreigners will have to sit out the start of the league season. 

Goal understands that former Kerala Blasters striker Iain Hume is still recovering from the injury he picked up last season. The Canadian is working hard to regain full match fitness but he is likely to miss out at least the first few matches for his new club. 

While the clubs are allowed to change their registered domestic players after every fifth ISL match (excluding playoffs) and 24 hours before the next game, the regulations regarding international players are slightly different.

In case of an injury to one of the foreign players, the club is required to send a written notification and full report of the injury to ISL. The league will approve a replacement only if the player is out for at least two months. 

In Hume's case, a return date has not been set. It is likely that he will miss the start of the season and in that case, Pune City's eighth foreign player will act as a replacement for the injured player and Iain Hume would be registered at a later date.

Pune City are not strangers to the concept of replacing foreign players after the season has kicked off. Last season, the Stallions signed Marko Stankovic and Lolo in January after releasing Damir Grgic and Robertino Pugliara.

Previously, Bengaluru FC had brought in Daniel Segovia on a short-term basis as a replacement for the injured Braulio Nobrega. The Blues signed Victor Perez in March last year with two weeks left in the league season after Edu Garcia left for Zhejiang Lucheng. All such replacements are subject to league's approval and Pune City look likely to follow a similar pattern this season.

 

Nisanth V Easwar