The Brexit impact on Scottish football
“The quality of the Scottish top flight is certainly lifted by the easy accessibility of signing players from across Europe”
a living wage that does not require people to come over here and claim benefits to top up”
Will I be able to buy the food I want? Will there be sufficient medical care if I fall ill? Will I keep my job in a suffering economy? And, most importantly, will my football team still be able to sign superstars from the Austrian second division?
Rationally, Scottish football is far down the list of important aspects of our daily lives that will be affected by Brexit, but there still could be a significant change to the landscape in this country.
The thinking goes that tighter regulations on players coming in from abroad would be good for the Scottish national team. If there are fewer foreigners in the league then it would force clubs into giving homegrown players a chance. The more games they play, the better they become, and the Scotland coach had greater quality to choose from.
While it’s an easy line to take, the reality may not be that simple. The quality of the Scottish top flight is certainly lifted by the easy accessibility of signing players from across Europe to augment our squads. Think of Celtic without Moussa Dembele, Hibs minus Florian Kamberi, or Hearts with no Peter Haring. If we are to assume that these players will have their places taken by young Scottish lads – and not just a bunch of outcasts from the English lower leagues – then the quality of the league as a whole would suffer. A young defender, for example, would be better served honing his trade by testing himself against a Dembele than an inferior player.
Besides, this is built on the logic that young Scottish players don’t stand a chance in the current climate. In actuality, they’re dotted about every club in the country, and the best ones are given the opportunity to play. There’s a possibility that the influx of footballers from abroad will not change much post-brexit.
In order to gain a working visa at present, a NON-UK/EU player coming to Scotland must fit the current criteria. He must come from a nation in the top 70 in the Fifa World Rankings and have featured in 75 per cent of their matches over the previous two years. If they don’t, they must earn a Governing Body Exemption. This is where a panel, on behalf of the SFA, determines whether a player is “of the highest standard” and “able to contribute significantly to the development of the game at the top level in Scotland”. Scottish football used to used to be quite strict in its interpretation.
A famous example saw Jason Scotland’s application for a work permit rejected after he’d scored the winning goal to put Dundee United into the 2005 Scottish Cup final, because the panel felt he hadn’t played regularly
0 Young defenders testing themselves against the likes of Celtic’s Moussa Dembele can only help to raise the standard of the game
0 Peter Haring has added to Hearts strenght, not weakened it
enough in the first-team over the course of the previous season.
Since then, though, it’s been highly unusual for a player to be rejected the chance to play in Scottish football. Among those deemed exceptional talents in recent years include Eboue Koussai, Juwon Oshaniwa and Antonio Rojano. Nobody would argue they raised the standard of football in this county.
If, in the near future, EU nationals had to apply in the same manner, they could
easily be treated with the same sort of leniency. It may also encourage clubs to become more creative with their scouting.
Because if they don’t have to cut through red tape and go through the rigmarole of trying to get a work permit, only to see the application rejected or delayed, teams are more likely to go for a European player at present.
Forcing those targets into the same category as the rest of the world might see more players arrive from Africa, Asia or America.