Of politics and football… and finances
by Robert Mizzi
T
he non‑Maltese readers of this contribution may have already realised this, especially if they have visited Malta in the past. The rather humorous, if not tragic, notion is that us Maltese can only discuss politics, football and saints, and nothing else! This article is not intended to go into the details of my introduction above. It will, however, bring politics into the realm of the beautiful game and how our beloved team should, in my opinion, react to the changes that are happening in the European political scene in the coming months. I am sure that even the most apolitical of Man Utd supporters would have heard of Brexit. If not, I’ve got news for you – the United Kingdom has left the European Union on the 31st January 2020. Well, not exactly, and in any case, what has this got to do with football, I hear you ask? In the first week of February 2020, the Premier League announced that the deadline for the summer transfer window would revert to a more traditional date in 2020, to bring it in line with other major European leagues. In one of my other contributions to Echoes, I had lamented the fact that the UK transfer window closed before the start of the season, whereas other countries had another 3 weeks to basically acquire players from the Premier League or other divisions, leaving the English clubs with a potential gap as they would not be in a position to fill the gaps in their squad. Essentially, we are going back to square one to avoid a scenario where Premier League players could still be ‘unsettled’ and clubs are prevented from bringing in replacements when players do leave. In our team’s case, we had Lukaku moving permanently to Inter and Sanchez and Smalling both leaving on
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loan without the possibility to replace them. This will not happen again as the transfer window will now close on the same day as other European countries. Is this a good thing? Well, yes and no ‑ as we all know this leads to speculations galore (especially in our club’s case!) and potential loss of focus by the players themselves. The UK’s departure from the European Union has been mentioned as one of the potential factors affecting this decision.
For those of you unfamiliar with the Brexit process, the UK is currently in the transition period, which means that the full impact of Brexit will not be felt until the start of 2021. This also extends to football. The freedom of movement principle (remember the Bosman Ruling?) means that Premier League clubs can continue to invest in European talent (some call it poaching!) without the need to consider the Governing Body Endorsement (GBE) requirements as at the moment, the UK has still got one foot in the EU! This is expected to change from the beginning of next year, as by that time, the UK will be officially out of the EU.
This means that Premier League clubs will have one final ‘window’ of opportunity to exploit this key facet of EU membership. So, as things stand at the moment, as from the next January transfer window, all players approached by English clubs playing in the EU will be treated exactly the same as non‑EU players – they would need a work permit from the GBE! To put things into perspective, Bruno Fernandes would potentially still be waiting for his work permit had he signed in January 2021 rather than January 2020. Three guesses who the losers will be in such situations!! Turning to the acquisition of young talent from Europe. Premier League clubs have reportedly been assured by FIFA that the key and commonly used exception to the general prohibition on international transfers of players aged under 18 will continue to apply for the rest of 2020. The prohibition, outlined in Article 19 of FIFA’s Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players (RSTP), does not apply where the relevant player transfers from one EU/EEA country to another, or is an EU/EEA national himself (who might be transferring from a non‑EU/EAA country). As we all know, this exception has been regularly exploited by Premier League clubs to reel in the best young European talent and exploit their ability to offer professional contracts to players aged 17 (in contrast to other European countries where players must wait until they turn 18). Thanks to Brexit, the opportunity to use this exception is now time‑restricted. From the start of 2021, barring any intervention by FIFA (including revising its exceptions to the Article 19 prohibition), Premier League clubs will need to be more creative in how they facilitate transfers of overseas players aged
