For a midseason champions league, that creates an issue because of the amount of teams a player can sign for in a calendar window. How ACFC and TW find calibre players that come in for champs league assuming they stick with their import quotas for the NZFC will be interesting.
I think its a good move and NZF have to follow suit quickly. At least tell the teams its reducing to 5 next year and 3 after that so any players 'signed' can be phased out as part of nature contract expiry.
While allowing five foreign players might work okay, reducing it to three for the national league is unrealistic and will result in a mediocre competition.
Canterbury United would struggle since so many of Canterbury's best footballers are British born, as they always have been over the decades.
Not sure if even guys like Tom Schwarz or Dan Terris have NZ citizenship.
Current Canterbury Utd squad (confirmed signings for next season):
Coey Turipa, Danny Knight, Stephen Hoyle (English), Aaron Clapham, Cory Mitchell, Sean Liddicoat, Andreas Wilson, Aaron Spain, Dan Terris (English).
Likely to re-sign: Tom Schwarz (English), Sean Morris (American), Juan Chang (Guatemalan) and Gary Ogilvie (English)
The most promising teenager in Canterbury is Cashmere Technical winger Lyle Matthysen who only has a South African passport. Now aged 18, has lived in Chch since aged six. Right now he is classed as a foreigner, a similar situation to fellow South African immigrant Ryan de Vries at Auckland City.