The British people have voted for ‘Brexit’, which means that Great Britain will leave the European Union. Besides the political and economic consequences, the football world will also be affected by this. In this article we’re going to take a look at the consequences for Arsenal and the rest of British football.
We start with the fact that the Pound won’t be worth as much as before, in comparison to the Euro. This means players will become way more expensive for the English clubs, and this also means that clubs from other European countries won’t have to pay as much as they do now for players in the United Kingdom (UK). Many expected English clubs to spend heavily this summer, due to the influx of the new TV money. Arsenal in particular have been linked with a host of new players – the hunt could now be on hold.
Due to the Brexit, it’ll also become a lot harder for clubs to buy foreign players. When the UK was still in the European Union, everybody who had an European passport was able to work in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. If the “freedom of movement” is abolished with the UK’s departure, European players will be subject to the same rules as players outside Europe, such as Gabriel Paulista and Mohamed Elneny.
The only way European players would be able to play in the Premier League, is when that particular player has played a certain percentage of international games for his country – the percentage of games is also dictated by the ranking of the national team. For instance, Arsenal would be unable to sign someone like Laurent Koscielny, as he had not represented France at the time of his transfer – a player from a top 10 country must have played 30% of the national games in the previous two years of the transfer.
Brexit also influences the under-18 players. Due to the FIFA regulations, clubs are allowed to buy players between 16 and 18 years of age. These rules don’t apply to the clubs in the European Union, but with the UK leaving the EU, the rules will also affect the football clubs in Great Britain. This means that Arsenal could miss out on players like Hector Bellerin, who was 16 when he made the move to Arsenal.
The only plus point for English football is that because of these FIFA rules, English clubs are almost forced to use their own English youth. This means that there’s a chance that more English talent will break through into the first team of their respective clubs. Which could lead to more home-grown talent.
So, we could say that when the UK does officially leave the EU, British football will be affected in a lot of ways. The only thing that we can do is to wait and see how the clubs will react to the sudden changes, and hope they all make the best of it.
