Basketball: Curious rule in Korea: foreigners may not be taller than two meters

The Korean Basketballlliag KBL causes a sensation with a curious change of rules: According to the latest regulations, foreign players may no longer exceed a height of exactly two metres.

Otherwise the players – some of whom have been in the Asian league for years – will no longer be eligible to play, the Korea Times reports.

The league has also introduced a limit of two foreign players per team. Both measures are intended to encourage clubs to bet on local players – and on players whose only strength is not the difference in size.

“Personally, I don’t understand that at all,” said David Simon, an active member of the KBL for over ten years – and 2.02 metres tall. “There’s only two or three of us over the limit anyway,” he told the BBC. “Most guys here aren’t super small anyway, and there’s no big difference in skills either.”