Question re: Loans in Soccer

I'm hoping someone far more knowledgeable about soccer than I can answer this...

When a player is loaned out to another team, is that player ineligible to play against the team that owns his rights? For example, I noticed that neither Carlton Cole (on loan to Charlton) nor Mikael Forssell (on loan to Birmingham) played against Chelsea this season.

Thanks in advance!

That depends on the deal. It is not per se forbidden that a loaned player plays against the teams that owns him (think Morientes scoring for Monaco against Madrid in the Champions league this season for instance). But sometimes clubs do add these clauses to the loan deal though, wich probably is what happened in the examples that you cited.

There are also other possible clauses: if a player is only going out on loan for a few months, sometimes it is stipulated that he can't play in certain cup competitions because he would otherwise be cup-tied and ineligible to play for his own club when he returns.

I always thought that English clubs couldn't loan players to teams in their own division. Is this a new change or has it never been a condition at all?

Yeah that used to be the case indeed, but I think that ruke was changed a season or two ago.