Premier League Chair Richard Scudamore has "given his backing to the Remain campaign, saying all 20 clubs in the top tier of English football support staying" in the European Union, according to SKY NEWS. Scudamore said that the Premier League was all about "openness" and that it would be "incongruous" for him to back the U.K. leaving. He argues that the U.K.'s continued membership of the E.U. "makes sense from a business perspective and said last year that leaving would make it harder for the Premier League to protect its intellectual property rights." Scudamore: "Nobody bears the scars more than me of having to go and negotiate in Brussels and try and organize things a little bit in our interests in terms of the European machine. Ultimately you can't break away, you can't just pull out, you have to get in and negotiate and try and organize and try and influence" (SKY NEWS, 6/20). REUTERS' Freya Berry reported top English football clubs said that leaving "would run counter to their global approach to business." Scudamore: "Are we better acting like we want to play our part in the world and be worldly citizens, or do we want to send a signal to the world that says, actually, we're kind of pulling the drawbridge up here?" The official Vote Leave campaign, which wants Britain to leave the E.U., has said that "British-born players would have more opportunities if the country no longer had to follow the EU's freedom of movement rules, and that clubs could have more freedom to sign players from around the world" (REUTERS, 6/20). In London, Murphy & Cecil reported the Leave camp "angrily replied that a Brexit could mean more cash for grassroots sports." Vote Leave's Robert Oxley said, "E.U. rules hurt both our ability to develop home-grown talent and restrict access to the global talent pool. That's the worst of both worlds for football fans and the teams they support. If we take back control, we can spend the £350 million ($514M) we send to Brussels each week on our priorities, like grassroots sport" (EVENING STANDARD, 6/20).
