Brexit: What Does it Mean for British Football?
"?"We would like to express how very much we value having the UK in the EU. It is not just treaties that join us to your country, but bonds of admiration and affection. All of us hope that you will vote to renew them. Britain, please stay."
The words of Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger earlier this month. Not for the first time, though, a large portion of the British public have taken one look at Wenger and shouted 'OUT' - voting on Thursday to leave the EU.
Arsene Wenger famously doesn't see a lot of things, but he does see "benefits of UK remaining In EU" https://t.co/hqOClkbjjJ
Obviously the effects of the vote on British football are absolutely dwarfed by the greater economic and human issues raised by Friday morning's result - but the effects on football do indeed exist, and, well, we are a football website.
The immediate impact, which will be felt especially by Premier League clubs pretty much straight away, is the collapse of the pound against the euro. Put simply - most transfers in Europe are negotiated in terms of euros rather than pounds. With the pound crashing, a player valued by his club at €40m will now cost a British club a couple of million pounds more, overnight.
That effect will probably lessen in the coming weeks and months as the currency rebounds from the shock, but it's not going to be a quick recovery, or a complete one.
This forecast suggests the pound will be worth *less* than the Euro. https://t.co/ecM8GIMl0K
A speculative piece from "?Goal earlier this week looked at Paul Pogba's rumoured €160m valuation by Juventus - claiming that the currency dive could see the value of that amount rise from £113.4m to £144m. That's huge.
In the longer term, work permits are going to become a real problem. Promising young players from South America and Africa are often denied work permits for UK moves until they prove themselves with international caps and the like - while relatively free movement within the EU had previously removed that problem for young European players. No longer.
There is an appeals process to allow exceptionally talented youngsters to be awarded permits, but it's lengthy, complicated and uncertain. When a move to another clubs on the same level is on the table, why go through the process?
That change will take a few years to come into effect though, as the UK and EU negotiate the terms of the departure.
British clubs will also be unable to snaffle the top European talent at a young age - the country opting out of EU legislation allowing FIFA rules banning the international transfer of players under the age of 18.
When those players do start coming over at 18, it's also going to be a lot more difficult for them to bring their families and the like over. That might seem like a relatively minor point in the grand scheme of things, but don't underestimate it - family concerns are often cited as one of the main factors in young players' decisions.
It's hard to find definites in the situation. Exactly how much the pound will lose to the euro in the long run, whether free movement into the UK will be part of the forthcoming negotiations...it's more or less a mystery. The UK has voted for the unknown. Now we just have to sit around and see how it plays out.
For more from Chris when he's not writing on 90min, follow him on Twitter at @ThatChris1209. For the sake of clarity - he voted remain.
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