The poor performance by Italian clubs in Europe last season has caused the Italia football federation (IFF) to change the rules. Effectively immediately, each club in Serie A will be allowed to sign a second non-EU player.
A year ago, after Italy’s first-round exit at the World Cup, the federation reduced the number of non-EU players from two to one with the goal of giving more Italian players playing time.
But the move to help the national team backfired as no Italian club made it past the quarterfinals of the Champions League and the Round of 32 in the Europa League last season.
One of the consequences of Italy’s poor performance in the European competitions was that Germany passed Italy for third place on UEFA’s ranking list. As a result, Serie A lost one of its four Champions League places in the 2012-2013 Champions League.
