What Does Brexit Mean For SCFC?
Our lord and saviour Peter Coates must be disappointed with the news coming from the recent referendum. The vote to leave the EU has left many intelligent people scratching their heads wondering what the hell do we do next? In Stoke 69% of people voted in favour of leaving, and in Newcastle 63% were in favour of leaving. In fact all the surrounding areas were in favour of leaving. This clear expression cannot be undone, so there for it is important that we look forward. What will football in the UK be like now that we have voted to leave the European Union? What will the team be like? How much will we be paying in transfer fees? Will we have to deport Bojan? Well this post will try and answer some of the question people may have about the future of Stoke. I should mention that all this is speculation and no one and I mean no one can predict what will happen.
It’s common knowledge that whilst we are still in the EU, players from EU countries could come and play for teams with out any barriers. Where as players from outside the EU have much stricter restrictions. We all remember the trouble we had when we tried to sign Juan Agudelo. The law states that an International player must have played in 75% of their nations games with in the past two years, these games have to be at first team standard. The games must be played in reputable competitions set down by FIFA (I also see the irony in saying that FIFA competitions are reputable). This limitation on international players was to encourage teams to foster home grown talent, forgetting the fact that Europe has the highest concentration of footballing talent anywhere in the world.
So would this mean that after we officially leave the EU, players like Bojan, Wollscheid, and Imbula would all have to leave? Well the answer is no one knows yet. I guess that’s not really the answer you were looking for was it? No one can really say if the FA would implement the same policies towards EU players as they currently do towards overseas players. The FA could get really excited at the prospect of only allowing Brits to play with in it leagues, forcing clubs to focus on their academies rather than buying the finished product from abroad. This would please the guy in the pub who can never pronounce Arnautović name correctly, and blames all of life’s worries on immigrants, but ultimately it would mean a lack of talent in English sides. There is an argument that it could have an beneficial effects on the International team, with more English players playing, the greater the chance of unearthing a gem, even though all the England team currently play in England, and that the top two leading goal scorers in the Premier League are English and they can’t beat a football team whose mascot is Peter pissing Andre and his prawn ring. The big clubs probably may benefit from it in the short term as all their European players probably play for their respective international teams anyway, which means teams like us would suffer. If this was the case all along players like Thierry Henry, Cristiano Ronaldo, David Ginola and Dimitri Payet would have never have got their chance (Daily Telegraph). English clubs would struggle in the Champions league and the Europe League, as we wouldn’t have the same talent pool to pick from. The league would lose its international appeal as they see that our clubs are unable to compete at high levels, and then our TV money would drop. This is a doomsday scenario.
It could go the other way, as one of the benefits of leaving the EU is greater say in how we run our country, which can be transferred to how we grant access to international players, meaning that there may be restrictions on international players but they may be less strict than what they are currently is. It also depends on the deal the UK gets from the EU, if we still want to be in the single market, we would probably have to accept the notion of free movement of people. One possibility that I heard was the UK could adopt a style similar to that found in the MLS where each team can have a number of designated players, rather than be players who are just paid more, they are international players, but this would still have detrimental effects to Stoke who only seven players from the first team come from the UK. At the end of the day The FA and the Premier League are businesses and business like stability, I believe that not much will change in the next couple of years. If and when we finally leave the EU it would be in the interest of the Clubs and other footballing institutions to maintain the status quo, maybe it would be slightly harder to get players to sign for us, but often our cash advantage will speak louder. But as I have said before no one at this stage can predict what will happen, but one thing’s for sure the sun will still rise and the Britannia, sorry the bet365 will still be fucking freezing on game days.
Written by Dan Morris
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