Football teams, at whatever level, often employ multiple international players to play for their team. Whereas in the past this has been considered a mundane task, with the introduction of Brexit, things may take a more complicated turn.
Just like any job, football players moving from country to country are required to hold work permits. Before Brexit, EU citizens have been able to easily attain permits to work in EU countries, however, it is evident that it is going to become increasingly difficult, particularly in the football industry who rely on fast paced changes in jobs and contracts.
“Once Brexit is complete there is no guarantee that EU nationals living in the UK will be allowed to stay” (Messer, 2018) and for the Premier League, this will have a huge impact, with 69% of players not being English (Messer, 2018), therefore clubs may lose large proportions of their team. As previously mentioned, buying players will also become more difficult and certainly more expensive for English clubs post-Brexit.
Teams wanting to purchase foreign players will be charged increased visa fees of up to £2000 and a skills charge of £1000 (Bridge, 2019), which for smaller clubs may be considered too much.
Although on the surface Brexit may appear detrimental for football in the UK, it may actually have the opposite effect. As in any industry, Brexit may force organisations that “rely on EU labour or a seasonal workforce” to switch their recruitment process to aim towards hiring “British talent” (Kerridge, 2019), and the same theory can be applied to football. Clubs will have to nurture their home-grown talent and in return, may England perform better on the world stage?
The Shift in Football from Sport to Business 