Koki Ogawa Excluded from NEC Nijmegen’s Champions League Squad

Japanese forward Koki Ogawa, who represented Japan at the World Cup, was omitted from NEC Nijmegen’s A‑list for the UEFA Champions League qualifying round against Olympiacos. NEC, which finished third in the Dutch Eredivisie and earned a historic first‑time CL qualification, could register only 22 players because it did not meet UEFA’s requirement to include at least eight locally trained players, four of whom must be club‑trained. Coach Dick Schrijder said Ogawa had only a week of training with the team and that the club prefers to develop newer signings gradually, noting that the decision should not be viewed negatively.

Other recent signings such as midfielder Adam Tahawi were also left out of the list, but the club retains the option to modify the squad before the first leg on August 5. The exclusion highlights the impact of UEFA’s home‑grown player rules on clubs with limited domestic talent pipelines.