Brexit: How It Affects The English Premier League

Being part of the European Union meant you could move to any country in the EU and gain employment, thus foreign players from other European countries did not have or apply or qualify for a work permit.

However, due to this referendum, players from other European nations will not have the automatic right to live and work in the UK, as they will face work-permit restrictions.

Analysing the statistics from last season, 432 European players were registered to play in the Premier League.

According to an investment banker Keith Harris, who spoke to Sky Sports in an interview, a host of star players would not have played in the Premier League last season had the United Kingdom already left the European Union.

“It was a shock result,” said Harris. “There are four players that we can reflect on and the impact they had on their clubs last year, who may not have been able to come in.

“Kante, who had a huge impact at Leicester, Martial at Manchester United, Lukaku at Everton and Payet at West Ham.

“I wonder how attractive the Premier League would have been and how well those clubs would have done without those specific players, and that’s the kind of thing we are now speculating about.”

The rules states that non-EU players from a top-10 nation has to have played in 30 per cent of their games in the two years prior to the date of application to be granted a work permit

A player from a nation ranked 11-20 must have played in 45 per cent of international games and that percentage rises to 60 per cent for the next 10 countries, then 75 per cent for nations ranked 31-50.

Players that meet these criteria are automatically granted a work permit. Exceptions can be made if they do not, but the transfer must be approved by a panel who takes into account such as transfer fee, a player’s salary and the number of matches played in one of the top six European leagues and in continental competitions such as the Champions League.

Consequently, this rule may now affect non-British players.

Brexit will [or could] also hurt Madrid as Bale becomes non-EU player so one of James, Danilo & Casemiro must go: https://t.co/jpILHvmvHD

— Dermot Corrigan (@dermotmcorrigan) June 24, 2016

Extracts from British media outlets revealed a handful of English Premier League players that would not have qualified for work permits, based on the current criteria for non-EU players, had they not had European passports.

Arsenal

Francis Coquelin
Mathieu Flamini
Mikel Arteta
Hector Bellerin
Nacho Monreal
Tomas Rosicky
Laurent Koscielny
Serge Gnabry

Bournemouth
Artur Boruc
Sylvain Distin
Joshua King

Burnley
Stephen Ward
Rouwen Hennings

Chelsea
Loic Remy
Kurt Zouma
Marco Amelia

Crystal Palace
Brede Hangeland

Everton
Gerard Deulofeu
Joel Robles

Hull City
Dusan Kuciak
Brian Lenihan
David Meyler

Leicester City
N’Golo Kante
Marcin Wasilewski
Robert Huth

Liverpool
Emre Can
Alberto Moreno
Jose Enrique
Adam Bogdan
Simon Mignolet
Dejan Lovren
Mamadou Sakho
Tiago Ilori
Joao Carlos Teixeira

Manchester City
Jesús Navas
Bacary Sagna
Eliaquim Mangala
Gaël Clichy

Manchester United
Anthony Martial
Ander Herrera
Adnan Januzaj
David de Gea
Morgan Schneiderlin
Timothy Fosu-Mensah

Middlesbrough
Dimi Konstantopoulos
Tomas Mejias
Michael Agazzi
Damia Abella
Daniel Sanchez Ayala
Tomas Kalas
Enrique Sola

Southampton
Juanmi
Oriol Romeu
Jose Fonte
Virgil van Dijk
Maarten Stekelenburg
Florin Gardos
Jordy Clasie

Stoke City
Bojan Krkic
Joselu
Erik Pieters
Marc Muniesa
Philipp Wollscheid
Jakob Haugaard
Ibrahim Afellay
Giannelli Imbula
Dionatan Teixeira

Bafétimbi Gomis
Angel Rangel
Jordi Amat
Kristoffer Nordfeldt
Leroy Fer
Alberto Palosch

Tottenham Hotspur
Kevin Wimmer
Michel Vorm

Watford
Mario Suarez
Jose Manuel Jurado
Obbi Oulare
Jose Holebas
Etienne Capoue
Nathan Aké
Steven Berghuis
Joel Ekstrand
Costel Pantilimon

West Ham United
Dimitri Payet
Pedro Obiang
Angelo Ogbonna
Adrian