• Thu. Mar 28th, 2024

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Are Newcastle United and the Premier League ready for Brexit?

Brexit has dominated the headlines in the British media for a number of years now with many wondering how it’ll impact the country. However, another aspect of the country that it could impact is the Premier League. The Premier League relies on foreign players every year with big-money transfers happening every summer in the transfer window. The question remains, will clubs still be able to bring in foreign players once Britain leaves the European Union.

Currently, for a foreign player to sign for a Premier League club, they must acquire a visa to work and immigrate into the United Kingdom. It is relatively straightforward for a European player to acquire a visa at the moment, however, if the UK leaves the European Union they’ll have to go through the same process as players from Asia, Africa and America do. UK Immigration Lawyers are experiencing an increase in enquiries from Europeans worried about the impact of Brexit on their status in the UK and upon any future travel plans.

Focusing on Newcastle United, the club only has 12 British or Irish players in their first-team squad. The rest of the squad is made up of 7 Europeans, 3 South Americans, 2 Asians, 1 African and 1 North American. For the 7 non-Europeans, they will have had to apply for visas to be able to work in the UK unless they were bought from a British club. For a non-European to be eligible for a visa, they must have played in at least 75% of their national team’s matches in the last two years barring injuries or suspension.

For example, Christian Atsu and Miguel Almirón are one of the best players for their respective national teams and feature in the majority of their matches. Therefore, they were granted a visa. However, if we look at some of the European players in the squad, Javier Manquillo, Emil Krafth and Allan Saint-Maximin are not first-choice players for their national teams and had they not been European, they would not have been granted visas to play in the UK.

This may not be a problem for the bigger clubs in the league such as Manchester City, Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea as they are used to buying the biggest names in football who play for their national teams regularly. For smaller clubs in the league, they may struggle to sign players who don’t play over 75% of their national team’s matches as they won’t be given visas by the UK government.

So if the club can’t bring in European players, where will they look? The obvious choice would be to sign players who play for smaller footballing nations who play over 75% of their matches, but these players will become in demand and could become more expensive over time. Another option (which many believe is a good thing overall for British football) is playing more young British players.

If the UK does leave the European Union without a deal, Newcastle along with other smaller Premier League sides will struggle to bring in quality players. However, on the positive side, the club will be able to bring through more young English players and improve the national team as a whole. Therefore, there are pros and cons to Brexit for the club.

This would stop young British players going abroad to look for more first-team football and decide to stay in the UK and play for sides such as Newcastle, Burnley and Brighton. Obvious examples of British youngsters playing abroad are Jadon Sancho of Borussia Dortmund, Wales’ Rabbi Matondo of Schalke FC and Ronaldo Vieira who currently plays for Italian side Sampdoria. If these young British players stay in the UK and continue to develop in the Premier League, the national teams will become more dominant in major tournaments.

For current foreign players in the Premier League, the UK leaving the European Union shouldn’t be a problem as they already have their visas. However they might need to apply for a UK Spouse Visa after Brexit if they marry from outside the UK in order to bring their wives or partners here.  Also they could find themselves in difficulty should they fall out of favour with their national team or should they wish to join another Premier League club. Another issue that could arise once Brexit is completed, is that UK Nationals in Europe could find themselves in difficulty as they will be treated as a non-European. This will mean they could have to move back to the UK to continue playing or register for a visa in their respective playing countries. Examples of this are Real Madrid’s Gareth Bale and Atletico Madrid’s Kieran Trippier. If foreign players are unable to move to the Premier League, this will see a lower quality of football being played in the league. The league will lose interest around the world and the finances will drop because of this. However, if the English Football Association can find ways around this in bringing through young British talent, then it could be a very good move for the league.