Article by Liviu Manolache, Daniel Grigore – Published Wednesday, November 19, 2025, 3:31 p.m. / Updated Wednesday, November 19, 2025, 3:32 p.m.
Today, the Chamber of Deputies voted in favor the legislative proposal that transforms the “Eduard Novak Order” into law. It will oblige Romanian teams to use at least 40% Romanian athletes during matches, starting next season. How will this affect Premier League football?
In short:
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The Chamber of Deputies voted as Order of the Ministry of Sports 500/2022, issued by former minister Eduard Novak, which provided the obligation to use 40% Romanian athletes by Romanian clubs, in all sportsat matches organized in the country, to become an integral part of the Physical Education and Sports Law.
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The law must be promulgated by President Nicușor Dan to enter into force.
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The text of the law provides for financial sanctions for teams that will not comply with the provision, fines between 500,000 and 1,000,000 lei, but it is not clear if the penalties will be applied after each violation (each match in which the teams will not use Romanians in a proportion of at least 40%) or at the end of the seasons. Details of this kind will be determined by each individual sports federation.
Football is among the sports with the highest proportions of foreign players, so it will be among the main “victims” if the law is enacted in this form. But how big will the blow be for Super League clubs? What is the foreign-to-native ratio and which teams use the most overseas players?
To begin with, a recap of what has happened so far this season in the first 16 legs of the regular season.
“Novak's Law” applied to the Super League: 3 teams are below the threshold this season
Until today, the 16 teams of the Super League have used 437 players in the current season, of which 188 do not have Romanian citizenship. This means that the latter represent 43.02% of the total number of players used in the Super League, respectively that at the macro level, the share of Romanians far exceeds the 40% threshold.
Among the foreign players, 5 have already represented two teams: Hakim Abdallah (Dinamo and UTA), Tidiane Keita (Petrolul and CFR Cluj), Mamadou Thiam (U Cluj and FCSB), Marko Gjorgjjevski (CFR Cluj and Hermannstadt) and Leo Bolgado (CFR Cluj and Rapid).
Three teams would be caught in a small “offside” where the law would be enacted. These are, in ranking order, Dinamo, Otelul and Csikszereda.
Compared to total appearances this season (number of players used * number of stages), the 3 are slightly below the threshold of 40% Romanian players!
Out of Csikszereda's total of 246 appearances, 149, i.e. 60.56%, belong to foreigners. At Dinamo there were 243 appearances, of which 146 (39.91%) by foreigners. Steel is the worst, being at 37.91% (149 out of 240). The number of appearances differs depending on the number of substitutions made in each match – in some matches 16 players are used, in others 13 or 14.
7 foreignersDinamo has in the “11” guy: goalkeeper Devis Epassy, stoppers Stoinov and Boateng, winger Sivis / Ikoko, midfielder Eddy Gnahore, winger Danny Armstrong and forward Mamoudou Karamoko
Other relevant statistics:
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The stage this season with the highest percentage of foreign players out of the total used is 11 (48.9%).
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In the 2023/2024 season, the Superliga recorded a record number of foreigners used, 240 in number. In that edition, they represented 45.5% of all footballers with minutes.
The teams that will not respect the law, in case it is promulgated, will be fined 500,000, up to 1,000,000 lei. Authorized GSP sources report that the initiators of the law would like the penalties to be applied “after every match” in which the law would not be respected!
