Life Outside the EU and 'foreign footballers'

[The Great Mass Debater 1,124]

As anyone who played older versions of Football Manager/Championship Manager will be aware, signing European players who werent EU members (which back then was most of them as EU only had 8-12 members) was practically impossible due to Work Permit issues.

I''ve heard that latest versions of Football Manager have a ''Brexit'' option, allowing you to play in a future world where the UK has completed it''s exit from the EU.

Without getting into the Brexit debate, I''ve not heard much about how no longer being part of the EU will affect football transfers in this country.

With us clearly looking at players in the German lower leagues at the moment, how might this change in the future, and might this be problematic.

The government has made noises at least about guaranteeing the rights of EU citizens already here, so it would follow that footballers we sign who are EU citizens prior to Brexit will have no work permit issues. BUT, after the UK leaves, will players like Zimmerman, with no international pedigree be unsignable?

As someone has pointed out, shopping in League 1/2 is by comparison very expensive. What might this mean for transfer policy and might it make the need for a successful academy all the more necessary?

[Nexus_Canary 1,108]

Most likely a deal will result in a policy such as "If your already here when its signed then you can stay / have a free work permit" other wise we would be throwing loads of people out and clubs like Money Cheat City and Chelski would find a million loop holes and annoy the football world.

It all depends really but Brexit will destroy the premier league as high value players will no longer be able to come here!

+ The English national team might be forced to actually compete and we would throw out some / many of our foreign mercenaries.

+ Teams like Money Cheat City will maybe forced to actually use someone born in the UK.

+ Less big money Shiek Whogivesashiek''s coming in.

- way less foreign investment

- way less foreign interest

- way less money in the game

Frankly sorting out the Premier League and focusing on actually growing / using English footballers is the only pro Brexit thing I''ve come up with so far!

(FM18 there is a download to remove Brexit from the game which has been around for ages, I personally use that as Brexit is a bigger joke than Ipswich Town)

[The Great Mass Debater 1,124]

Teams like Man City will be unaffected because any European player they look to sign will undoubtedly be a full international wrt the first team. Where they might struggle is poaching kids from foreign academies. Think Fabregas and Pique who were taken from Barce''s academy before full internationals. Would also put an end to the dual nationality passporting for South American players etc. I imagine it would affect inter-club relationships too as feeder clubs in Belgium etc to get EU citizenship would become redundant.

This is however all on the assumption the government would apply general immiration rules to football.

However, as the government is free post-Brexit to adopt whatever immigration rules it likes, there would be nothing to stop the government for example (maybe after lobbying) stating that football was a special industry and adopting an immigration policy that allowed footballers to come without needing a work permit. If it recognised the need to do this to protect a multi-billion pound industry they certainly could.

If they didnt though, realistically it could push the value of elibgible players even higher. It could mean more British players in our leagues though whihc might ultimately see transfer fees go down, there''d be less holding of clubs to ransom because ''he''s English'' and there would be less pressure on the ''Home Grown Status'' issue