Would be very interesting to calculate the effect on the 2012, 2013 and 2014 intake if the new rules had applied then. From a brief look at the criteria some would be a flat no, some might need an appeal but our squad might have looked very different in the years spent battling to get out of the Championship in the first place. What does seem apparent is that over time this will favour the top clubs, ever. The wider picture is that the French and Spanish leagues will be less attractive for the agents looking to bring talented players over from Africa and South America (predominantly) for long enough to get them an EU passport before moving them to England where the money is bigger. Again, the outstanding talent will always find a way to Man City or Liverpool etc. It’ll be the likes of us that have a supply line squeezed, if not severed entirely. Perhaps that’s the goal, reduce the number of overseas players over time so that the home grown guys who are currently filling teams in the Championship and League One move up the chain.
We need English players as we are an English club. Will be good for us to be out of the EU. Cant wait for Jan 1st to come so we can send loads of free loading foreginers back home. About time we had the navy patrolling our coastline blasting the swarms of immigrants coming over in boats out the water too, the news tells me there are loads of them. I want my country back, England for the English and God Save The Queen God Bless Her.
That would be a tough one for some forumites. Interesting that the Championship is listed, does that mean that we wouldn't be able to sign a foreign player from another Championship club who may have been there fore some time but doesn't quite fulfil the other criteria?
We most likely would - buying from another Championship team gives 10 points, so you'd only need another 5 points to make up, which you'd get as long as they'd played 50% or more of the available minutes (which you'd expect as can't really see us buying any fringe players off another Champ team)
All Brexit does is possibly affect the automatic entitlement for European passport holders to play here. It's up to the government and the football authorities to decide whether regulations are upheld, strengthened or relaxed. It also allows the government to set it's own rules on non EU players which could similarly be upheld, strengthened or relaxed. Theoretically if the government was minded to they could class professional footballer as a required skill and fast track visa/citizenship/passport. Brexit could make it easier to compete for players contracts with other countries, of course it depends on having a government that can organise a pee up in a brewery and a football authority that acts for the good of the game, rather than the good of the big 6.
There is indeed a specialist tier 2 visa already in existence for many years for elite sport. The league & FA have been looking to increase the home grown number within the 25 man squad and all clubs including Watford have been trying to increase the number of home grown players within the squad over the last 2 or 3 years to meet that forthcoming requirement. I think you may be right about Spain & France but these players will still need European visas so I think they will still go there first to gain experience and a passport.
Interestingly, the reference period for earning points under the system is just the 12 months prior to the application to register the player. So, couldn't Champ and PL clubs still find it fairly simple to sign players from crap leagues, such as in Band 4 and below e.g. Ukrainian, Colombian and Uruguayan leagues by buying players from there, then loaning them for just one season to a bottom side in a poor Tier 2 or 3 league such as the Portuguese, Turkish, Belgian, Russian or Mexican league so they can get minutes before registering them? This would actually make it much quicker and easier to sign players such as Cucho, making them able to be brought over in just 1 year, rather than the circa 3.5 years it took waiting for them to get a Spanish passport.
