Friday 27 September 2019

Brexit And Your Football Team

With the self-inflicted madness that is Brexit still ongoing something which got a very brief mention during the referendum but seems to have been overlooked ever since is the effect on the National game of football.
The Football Association put the number of foreign players in the Premier League at 65% and 50% in the Championship and when (or if) Brexit takes effect, every one of those players would be treated as outside EU players are treated at the moment which is based on a far stricter criteria which includes gaining a work permit based on transfer fees, salary, international caps and the FIFA ranking of a player’s national team.
Last year, the FA estimated that almost two thirds of European players from outside England would not have qualified for the work permit which would have a massive impact on English teams.
The FA have been lobbying the Government for special arrangements without much success and most worried will be my team Arsenal who football magazine 90 Minutes, put the number of foreign players at 22 of the 26 first team squad.
Manchester City have 22 foreign players from their 29 man squad, Chelsea 21 from 28, Manchester United 26 from 35, Tottenham 20 from 29, Liverpool 19 from 29, Everton 22 from 35 although Bournemouth would be best placed with only 9 foreign players in their 25 man squad.
I guess if a plummeting pound, shortages of fuel, food and medicine, job losses, customs delays and
civil unrest is not enough to see Brexiters see sense, the top teams being usurped by Bournemouth may do it.

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