shaolinpunk
[Insert witty title here]
With news that the new instalment of Football Manager will include various Brexit possibilities, it got me thinking; how could it affect the Albion?
From an article about FM17 and Brexit in The Telegraph:
There are three main scenarios:
1: Soft Brexit - free movement of workers remains.
2: Footballers are granted the same special exemptions that are currently given to ‘entertainers’. This means it is easier for them to obtain work permits than other people, and it will not have a huge impact on player movement from the EU.
3: Hard Brexit: similar rules to those which currently apply to non-EU players are adopted for all non-UK players.
The points system makes it easier to obtain a work permit for a non-EU-based player if they are in the top 25 per cent of earners at a club or in a league, if they have a large transfer fee or if they play for a major international team. But applying hard Brexit-like rules would have serious implications on who would be eligible for a move into the Premier League.
4. There is also the option that sees us adopt a system like Italy’s, where there is a limit on the number of non-EU players in each squad. The limit of non-UK players that British clubs are allowed could range from anything as high as 17 to as low as four.
If you only had four non-UK players per squad, that’s going to make things difficult. All of a sudden Championship-quality players are moving into the Premier League to fill up slots. That could mean the overall quality drops, and that means the TV money goes down.
Meanwhile, transfer fees go up: foreign players are worth more to British clubs because you need to make sure you make the most of those four slots, and the best British players become more valuable, and so more expensive, too.
If it is one of the latter stricter options, that will shake things up here. We presumably wouldn't be able to pick up an undiscovered gem on the cheap from abroad like we did with Ulloa. Would we have been able to sign Kayal? Hemed? Knockaert? Bruno?
One would assume our best British players would become more valuable and much more in demand - Dunk, March and Stephens would be gone quickly.
From an article about FM17 and Brexit in The Telegraph:
There are three main scenarios:
1: Soft Brexit - free movement of workers remains.
2: Footballers are granted the same special exemptions that are currently given to ‘entertainers’. This means it is easier for them to obtain work permits than other people, and it will not have a huge impact on player movement from the EU.
3: Hard Brexit: similar rules to those which currently apply to non-EU players are adopted for all non-UK players.
The points system makes it easier to obtain a work permit for a non-EU-based player if they are in the top 25 per cent of earners at a club or in a league, if they have a large transfer fee or if they play for a major international team. But applying hard Brexit-like rules would have serious implications on who would be eligible for a move into the Premier League.
4. There is also the option that sees us adopt a system like Italy’s, where there is a limit on the number of non-EU players in each squad. The limit of non-UK players that British clubs are allowed could range from anything as high as 17 to as low as four.
If you only had four non-UK players per squad, that’s going to make things difficult. All of a sudden Championship-quality players are moving into the Premier League to fill up slots. That could mean the overall quality drops, and that means the TV money goes down.
Meanwhile, transfer fees go up: foreign players are worth more to British clubs because you need to make sure you make the most of those four slots, and the best British players become more valuable, and so more expensive, too.
If it is one of the latter stricter options, that will shake things up here. We presumably wouldn't be able to pick up an undiscovered gem on the cheap from abroad like we did with Ulloa. Would we have been able to sign Kayal? Hemed? Knockaert? Bruno?
One would assume our best British players would become more valuable and much more in demand - Dunk, March and Stephens would be gone quickly.