The Premier League’s top academies "are preparing for life after Brexit," according to Jack Pitt-Brooke of the London INDEPENDENT. England’s big clubs "currently benefit from the European Union’s exception" to FIFA’s Article 19, which allows them to sign 16-year-olds from Europe, instead of having to wait until the player turns 18. But after the news that the government will be pursuing a "hard Brexit" from the European Union, clubs "fear that these days are numbered." The director of one top academy said that he is "already planning for a future in which English clubs can only sign foreign talent when they have turned 18." His club, like many others, has "had great recent success by signing European youngsters at 16." Many of England’s top academies have focused on that marketplace over the last 10 years, although 85% of 16 to 18-year-olds in Premier League academies are British. Signings depend on the U.K.’s membership of the European Union or the European Economic Area. Article 19 of FIFA’s Regulations on the Status & Transfer of Players states that "international transfers of players are only permitted if the player is over the age of 18." There is an exception, though, "stating that players can move between clubs in the EU or EEA between the ages of 16 and 18." That exception was agreed between FIFA, UEFA and the EU. If the U.K. is no longer a member of the EU or the EEA in a few years’ time, "it will no longer have the benefit of that exception." That would "force clubs to re-appraise their current academy recruitment model" (INDEPENDENT, 10/10).
