The Korean Basketball League is considering altering its restrictions on foreign players as the sport faces waning popularity and growing calls from teams for a change.

Officials gathered at the KBL office in Seoul Monday to discuss the rules for foreign players in the country’s top pro basketball league.

They urged the league’s governing body to increase the number of foreign players allowed from the current one per team to two.

“Our game is highly dependant on foreign players,” said Incheon Elephants manager Yoo Do-hoon.

He claimed that teams need to have at least two foreign players for more interesting games.

“We have just one imported player. If he is injured or something happens to him, we would be in big trouble,” Yoo said.

Shin Sun-woo, the KBL’s technical committee director, said that having another imported player will allow teams to play more dynamic games.

“As they can have only one, teams now stick with only big and tall foreign players. But if we allow an additional player, teams will bring in fast and skilled players in more diverse positions,” Shin said.

The call comes just two months after the KBL introduced a limit on foreign players starting at the beginning of the 2011-2012 season.

Until last season, each team had two foreign players, though the two could not play at the same time on the court.

But the KBL decided last year to reduce the number of foreign players to one per club to nurture more home-grown players.

“After the change, the games have become less interesting. Some teams now score less than 60 a game, and fans don’t like it,” said basketball commentator Park Jae-young.

Some, however, argue the KBL must keep the restrictions on foreign players.

Park Geon-yeon, of the Korea University Basketball Federation, pointed out that there are not many home-grown centers in the KBL due to the dominance of foreign players.

“The KBL needs to be careful before changing its rules again. It has to think about how to provide more opportunities for young home-grown players,” Park said.

According to the KBL, all managers from the 10-team league have agreed to increase the number of foreign players. But the governing body said it will hold more discussions before making any changes.

By Oh Kyu-wook (596story@heraldcorp.com)