Premier League clubs "will be obliged to ensure" that at least half of their first-team squads are made up of "homegrown" players under "drastic" plans put forward by the FA to deal with Brexit, according to Martyn Ziegler of the LONDON TIMES. The proposal, which would reduce the number of overseas players in each 25-man squad to 12, "will be put to the 20 clubs this week." England’s top tier is "under pressure" to agree to a deal with the FA for Brexit. If the clubs do not do so, they could face a nightmare "no-deal" scenario in which all EU players "would have to fulfil the same criteria that non-EU players do now in order to get a work permit." The clubs can have up to 17 overseas players in their squads under existing rules, but the FA’s plan would reportedly reduce that number by five. That would mean "significant changes to a number of squads in the top flight," where 13 clubs have more than 12 overseas players in their first-team squads this season. Five clubs, including Man City and Tottenham, have the maximum number of foreign players, while four more, including Chelsea and Liverpool, have 16. In return for an agreement to boost the number of homegrown players in first-team squads, it is understood the FA would agree to give a "governing body endorsement" for a work permit for "every foreign player who gets a contract with a Premier League club." There would, "as with all Brexit changes, be a transition period" until at least the end of '20. The government is believed to be aware of the proposal, as is the English Football League. Whitehall has made it clear that if football’s stakeholders can agree to a deal for what happens regarding overseas players after Brexit, "then it will be happy to sanction the new rules." The clubs will be given the full details of the proposal at a meeting of chairs in London on Thursday. A cut in the number of foreign players "would mean English players becoming more valuable in terms of transfer fees." Owen Jones, a specialist in immigration sports law, said that the top-flight clubs "should have worries about the effect of Brexit." He said, "The Premier League and the clubs are rightly concerned that the current visa system will not allow clubs to bring the same sort of number of EU players into the U.K. in the future. For clubs to maintain the status quo, as near as they can, they need the visa system to change entirely or the GBE system to be taken out of that process" (LONDON TIMES, 11/13).
