Column: A post-Brexit world continues to impact the transfer window

For better or for worse remains to be seen, but Brexit’s impact on football continues to be in a state of flux as the game navigates a post-EU sporting landscape.

In its latest development, teams across the globe need to be aware that the Football Association (FA) has introduced new governing body endorsement (GBE) criteria which ultimately grant international player visas.

The changes came into effect at the start of this year’s summer transfer window in order to give English clubs additional access to international players and help facilitate teams looking to sell to the country.

Rewinding back to December 2020, the UK initially abolished the ‘special immigration status for EU citizens’ when the post-Brexit transition period expired and the implementation of a new post Brexit immigration system meant that European players had to obtain a points-based GBE to transfer to an English club, as is currently the position for stars of nations outside of the EU.

A GBE is only issued in respect of ‘elite players’ and usually involves showing that they have international caps or a high market value. In order to sponsor a sportsperson under a points-based system, a company or organisation must be a ‘sporting body, sports club, event organiser or other organiser’ operating, or intending to work in, the sporting sector.

Teams from abroad should understand that when the endorsement criteria was initially drawn up, the Premier League had wanted a points threshold to be just nine points – meaning it would be easier for clubs to sign promising young players – while the FA had pushed for it to be 18 points, making it harder to bring in foreign talent.

Loosened the criteria

The governing body saw this as a rare opportunity to introduce curbs on flooding the league with players from abroad at the expense of developing homegrown stars.

To gain agreement for quota changes, the FA had loosened the criteria for all overseas players to gain work permits to play in England, however as part of the latest changes, it has introduced an updated GBE criteria for international player visas – impacting both who and how a player can qualify.

All overseas players must secure a GBE from the FA in order for their new club to be able to sponsor them under an International Sportsperson Visa or Temporary Worker – Creative and Sporting (tier five) – and work in the UK.

This can be granted within 24 hours or five working days under a priority service once approved, although players have two options to secure a GBE: the auto pass percentage manner or the 15 points ruling.

The auto pass percentage process involves the FA considering the number of international appearances made by an incoming player within a relevant period.

As a general overview, the percentage threshold of national appearances will increase the lower a player’s national association places in the FIFA world rankings, while for non-youth players this will be two-year period prior to the date of their GBE application.

Put into practice, if a player’s national team is ranked in the top ten national teams in the world a player can achieve an auto pass if he/she has played in only 30 per cent of games.

Qualify for moves to England

Conversely, if a national team is ranked 31-50, the auto pass threshold is 70 per cent, while players who represent sides sitting below 51 means they will be ineligible even if they have featured across all fixtures.

For players who fail to meet the auto pass requirements, the FA will grant new arrivals a GBE if they can score 15 points within the outlined criteria. Similar to international appearances, the higher the ranking of a competition a player features in, the more points are available.

Players are able to earn points across the following criteria:

• The quality of the player’s current club based on the ‘band’ of the domestic league.
• The percentage of minutes played for the current club in domestic league and continental competition fixtures.
• The current club’s final league position.
• The progression of the player’s current club in continental competition.
• The number of international appearances made (if the player’s percentage of games is not sufficient for an auto pass, points are available on a sliding scale).

As a result of the recent changes to GBE criteria, some leagues have had their bands altered meaning more players now qualify for moves to England.

For example, MLS has risen from band four to band three meaning that if a player from the competition has played 80 per cent of their club’s minutes, they will be eligible for GBE regardless of league position or international caps.

Similarly, band five has also been increased to include additional leagues such as Serie B and top divisions across Hungary, Japan and South Korea, while looking to the future, an emerging market like the Saudi Pro League may quickly progress among bands if it continues on its current trajectory.

The Russian Premier Liga and Chinese Super League have both been downgraded from band three to four and Band five to six respectively in the latest revisions.

Teams in the J. League should be aware of its addition to band five as combined with the country’s FIFA ranking, it puts Japanese players who are regulars for their clubs in an enviable position as they could earn enough points for a GBE if they have played at least 0.5 per cent of available minutes for the national team over the past two years.

It is advisable teams dealing with English sides do check player eligibility before entering into negotiations – Fulham’s proposed transfer for Roma's Justin Kluivert collapsed as a result of work permit issues in 2022 after the winger had failed to make enough appearances in Serie A.

Further spaces could be available for foreign talent

The key alteration within the latest changes of GBE criteria was the creation of a new ‘Exceptions Panel’ which will permit clubs to sign a number of players who do not meet the current points requirements.

As part of the initial rollout, Premier League and Championship teams shall have up to four elite significant contribution player (ESC) places available at any one time.

When broken down, this is outlined as two ESC places regardless of a weighted England qualified players (EQP) minutes percentage and up to two additional ESC places as determined by weighted EQP minutes.

League One and League Two sides shall have two ESC places available at any one time no matter what the weighted EQP minutes percentage amounts to.

A fee of £5,000 plus VAT will be charged for every submission to the Exceptions Panel and is something to keep in mind when in negotiations should budgets be tight.

Further down the line, teams will receive an allocation of ESC places depending on the proportion of English players they play (i.e., weighted EQP minutes percentage) meaning further spaces could become available for foreign talent.

The Exemptions Panel will only recommend a player is granted a GBE if they missed out on the 15 points needed (i.e., they achieved between 10-14 points) on the grounds that if the ‘exceptional circumstances’ did not apply the player would have achieved 15 points – written evidence to support the claim would need to be provided to the Exceptions Panel by the buying club.

FIFA transfer rules prohibit the international transfer of footballers under the age of 18, although one exception to this rule is when the transfer is within the EU as is stated under FIFA regulation 19.

Previously under EU legislation, homegrown players were counted as those registered with the FA for at least three years before they turned 21-years-old, regardless of nationality and had previously allowed top English clubs to scoop some of the best European players aged between 16 and 18, however after 31 December 2020, only players from the UK home nations will be counted as homegrown.

Under the new Exceptions Panel criteria clubs will be able to apply for a player to be granted GBE if they are a ‘youth player of significant potential and quality to enhance the development of the game in England’ and justify that to the Exceptions Panel recommending that a GBE be awarded.

This will ensure youth prospects to be able to move to the UK much earlier in their career as teams previously had to wait for a player from an EU country to turn 18 to sign them, however it will be the top players in youth teams outside of western Europe who will be those most likely to benefit from this new policy as more opportunities to head to England are now available.

While the UK is still getting to grips with the realities of Brexit in a sporting sense, competitions from abroad are also trying to facilitate transfers with English clubs – Italian authorities made a formal request in July to treat British players as part of the EU, even after Brexit.

The transfer landscape has seen drastic changes over the last few years as a result of Brexit and one thing is for certain: teams can save a great deal of time, effort and money by keeping on top of alterations to sporting immigration laws.