Which Major Soccer Teams Refuse to Hire Foreigners?

July 23, 2013— -- intro: The decision by Chivas USA to pack its roster with Mexican players and fire much of its Caucasian staff has led to accusations that this MLS team has become racist.

It has also prompted a discrimination suit against the team, which the HBO show Real Sports will discuss in a special report on Tuesday night.

The Real Sports investigation looks at how non-Mexican players and coaches were recently forced off the team on allegedly dubious grounds.

But imagine for a moment that Chivas USA had actually laid out a policy of hiring mostly Mexican citizens and players of Mexican descent, because it wants to represent the Mexican American community in the U.S. Would that be fair?

In Europe, Asia and Latin America, there are already several soccer clubs that only hire players of one nationality or even of a certain religious group. Those clubs don't really get much flack for doing so, and lots of fans actually take pride in the fact that their teams don't have any "foreigners" on the roster. Check out this list of nationalistic clubs, and let us know if you think that Chivas USA should follow in their footsteps.

quicklist: 1title: Athletic Bilbao [Spain]text:This soccer club was founded back in 1898. For decades, it only fielded players from the Basque regions of northern Spain and southern France.

For the Basques, a people without a country of their own, the club has become an important source of national pride. Its cultural, social and political role was especially important during the decades in which Basque language and identity were repressed by Spanish dictator Francisco Franco.

Now that Spain is a democratic country and the Basque region has more autonomy, Bilbao has relaxed its "Basques only" tradition a bit, occasionally hiring players from other parts of Spain. But this proud club still relies largely on players that rise through the ranks of its local academy. It is one of just three Spanish clubs who have never been demoted to second division. You might have heard of the other two: Barcelona and Real Madrid.

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quicklist: 2title: Chivas Guadalajara [Mexico]text:Chivas de Guadalajara has not fielded any "foreign" players since it was founded in 1908, although a few U.S.-born players of Mexican descent have played for the team. The reasons for this tradition are unclear, but the policy has certainly encouraged Chivas to develop a good soccer academy, which has produced distinguished alumni like Manchester United striker Javier Hernandez. With the team currently going through a rough patch though, some of its supporters have urged management to break with tradition and hire foreigners, just like the rest of Mexico's top squads.

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quicklist: 3title: El Nacional [Ecuador]text:El Nacional was founded by a retired general in the 1960s, and its initial squad was made up mostly of players who belonged to the country's armed forces. Those days are long gone, but El Nacional, which is now partly owned by Ecuador's Air Force, still sticks to hiring only Ecuadorean players. Based in Quito, this team has won 13 championships in Ecuador's professional league.

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quicklist: 4title: Beitar Jerusalem [Israel]text:Founded in 1936, Beitar Jerusalem is the only team in Israel's premier league that has never fielded an Arab player. The team's management has said that they are open to hiring Arab players when it makes sense for the team do so, but they have met resistance from radical sectarian fans, who loudly protested a decision by the team to hire two Chechen Muslims earlier this year. A Nigerian muslim player was hired back in 2005, but left shortly afterwards, because harassment from fans made his stay at the club unbearable.

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quicklist: 5title: Rangers [Scotland]text:Glasgow Rangers is one of the two teams that dominate Scotland's Premier League. It hires players from all over the place now, but until the 1970s the team was known for trying to avoid any Catholic players. That's because sectarian tensions in Scotland and neighboring Ireland spurred Rangers to assume a fiercely Protestant identity. Arch-rival Celtic, a club with Irish and Catholic roots, stuck with the Catholic players and fans. This dichotomy has changed in recent years as tensions have decreased, and both teams now hire scads of international stars without regard for religion as they attempt to outdo each other.

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quicklist: 6title: Saprissa [Costa Rica]text:For lengthy periods of its history, this Costa Rican club has chosen to not hire any foreigners, relying instead on players who rise through the ranks of its soccer academy. Currently, Saprissa only has one foreigner on its 30-player roster, Guatemalan American defender Moises Hernandez.

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