Many fans of Premier League clubs have heard time and time again about the FA’s work permit rules for players from countries outside of the European Union. These fans wait with bated breaths to see if the new players their team signed will qualify for a work permit and if not, if the club can appeal the decision. Well the FA has had enough of that and in a bid to encourage promotion of homegrown players, they have tightened up the rules for granting work permits.

The rules now for the work permits are as follows. The player in question must be from a country ranking in FIFA’s top 70 and played in 75% of that nation’s matches in the last two years. The idea is that they must be players at the highest level so they can raise the overall quality of football in the Premier League. However being selected or not selected to the national team is not always a reflection of a player’s quality because of the politics associated with some selections.

In most cases, if a player is rejected for a work permit then the team can appeal based on several factors. One is having a player’s national team coach appeal on his behalf and say that he will be using the player more, such as the case with Leicester City’s signing Andrej Kramaric. There is also the talent appeal which Chelsea used to convince the FA to allow them to sign Willian from Anzhi Makhachkala. FA chairman Greg Dyke described te appeals process as “a bit of a farce” and they have decided to do away with completely.

The FA has, along with removing the appeals process, tightened up restrictions across the board. Instead of being a player in a 70 country, they must be from one in the top 50. However they did lower the appearances threshold from 75% to 30% but that only applies to nations in the top 30. The last rule change is the most interesting because players with transfer fees over £10 million will receive their work permits with no issues.

The goal of the £10m limit is to encourage clubs to promote their own players rather than spend £2-3m on a player from overseas. Opinions seem to be split on whether that will simply lead to inflated transfer fees for the big clubs rather than the intended purpose. For example a club may just spend an extra couple million pounds on a player just to skirt the whole work permit process.

However for clubs that do not routinely spend over £10m on a transfer fee, that rule could certainly encourage them to promote a player from the academy for a fraction of the cost. The reason these clubs bring in players from overseas is because they can get veteran players that have been tested at the top flight for a relatively low cost. They have to worry about the player acclimating to the Premier League, but they often know that this player is capable of competing against men and not just boys in the academy.

The FA’s plan does have its loopholes that will be exploited by the big players in the market but that is often the case. Just look at the way Manchester City is finding creative ways to skirt UEFA’s FFP regulations. For the smaller clubs, this will almost certainly encourage them to bring up their own players or take a chance on an English player from the Championship or lower leagues. These players may not end up reviving the England national team but it will at least accomplish the FA’s goal of having more homegrown talent on display.

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