Brexit Bad For The Premier League – Club Executives
English Premier League clubs owners have called on British government to come up with measures to protect the competition from being damaged by Britain’s imminent departure from the European Union.
Recall that Britain’s Prime Minister, Theresa May on Wednesday triggered article 50 to officially begin a two-year countdown to the UK’s departure from the European Union.
More than two-thirds of Premier League players were born abroad, and it is not yet known how the future immigration laws will impact on what clubs are able to do in the transfer market, with Chelsea set to be the side most affected.
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The chancellor, Philip Hammond, promised that “highly-skilled and highly-trained paid workers” will be exempt from the new laws.
With owners of Stoke and West Ham football club calling for the inclusion of footballers on the list of those exempt from the new laws, to preserve the flow of top footballers from the continent.
The move followed a meeting with executives from the Premier League’s 20 clubs.
“We’d expect them to be included (in exemptions), but we have to wait and see,” Stoke owner Peter Coates said after the meeting.
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“We don’t know. And I can tell you the prime minister doesn’t know, the guy leading it, David Davis [the Brexit secretary], doesn’t know, Boris Johnson [the foreign secretary] certainly won’t know.
“I think the government’s got more on its hands than worrying about the Premier League. But they’ve no more idea than I have of what’s going to happen. So nobody knows how this is going to work out.
“I’m pessimistic about leaving,” Coates added. “Nothing’s changed my mind. Hopefully, football will find a way of looking after itself when it finally happens — whenever that will be. That could be years down the line.
“We’re into the unknown. What this is creating is uncertainty and we shall all look back in five years’ time and think, ‘What the hell have we done this for? We’re worse off’. And, in ten years’ time, we’ll still be saying the same thing.”
However, former FA Chairman Dyke believes otherwise, saying that Brexit can reduce the number of “very average European players” in the Premier League.
