Why a no-deal Brexit will be sh*t for the Premier League

Keep your mails coming to theeditor@football365.com.

No Deal Brexit effect on football
So it’s shockingly and not at all predictably a No Deal Brexit.

Almost as if engineering No Deal is the only way Brexiters can even pretend to avoid having to be accountable for their Brexit not being as great and sunlit upland and the easiest deal is history as they promised.

This will have interesting effects on all sorts of things, but as far as football in the UK is concerned the fallout will be significant.

Signings are the main difference.

After January British clubs are unable to sign players from the EU without a work permit, whose criteria is stricter than the current existing work permits for non-EU players.

The system is called Governing Body Endorsement, GBE, run by the FA with approval of the Home Office.

It’s a points based system based on a players international appearances and how high their international country is ranked by FIFA.

Players from a top 10 FIFA ranked country must have played in more than 50% of that nations matches over the last two years, players from lower ranked nations will need to be regular first choice player for their country over two years.

There is an appeals process where a player classed as of “the highest quality” who does not meet the criteria may be granted a GBE. This panel will include a government Home Office official and the verdict must be unanimous. Unlike the current system for overseas players, a high salary does not guarantee appeal success.

UK clubs will not be permitted to sign any overseas players under the age of 18.

UK clubs will not be permitted to sign more than 3 overseas players under the age of 21 per campaign.

UK clubs will only be permitted to sign a maximum of 6 overseas players a campaign.

The FA also intends to reduce the number of non-homegrown players allowed in a squad from the current 17 to just 13.

Any Football Manager players will understand quite how limiting that can be for clubs, particularly those below the elite level.

I’m 33, I don’t remember much about the pre-Cantona/Zola/Gullit Premier League days of football, but I played the hell out of old Championship Manager games and the limitations on squads and signings when the vast sea of potential world talent below the well known top players was denied to you were stark.

Brexit is shit in so many wonderful ways, but I hadn’t fully realised that it was also going to be the slow downfall of the Premier League as a competitive league.

Johnny Nic will be delighted.
Tim Sutton (United will win nothing with Solskjaer, still not totally sure why calling a black man a black man is racist)

Why is Webo getting off scot free?
Sorry if I’m a bit late to this.

How come in this whole racism row, Webo is getting off scot free?? Why is nobody reporting the reason that the 4th official was directing the referees attention to him?? Is it not racist of him to refer to Romanians as gypsys??

This is why a percentage of people can’t stand this BLM/Black Power movement. It seems to give cart blanche to certain people willing to take advantage of the mood and stir up trouble, then walk away from it. You’ll have idiot do-gooders claiming “he can’t be racist, he’s black”. It’s absolute nonsense. PSG and Istanbul should both have been removed from this seasons CL for refusing to complete their match. Who are they to demand an official is removed from his position? The 4th official should also be looking at pressing libel charges against both clubs.

It has gotten absolutely ridiculous at this stage, and farces like this completely take away from actual racism.
Weldoninhio, Dublin

AWB for CB?
I think the subject line will give away my theory but I’ll pop it out there any way. In Man Utd’s search for a consistent partner for Maguire and given the fact they seem to be linked with all the right backs currently, have they tried AWB at centre back?

We need someone with pace who can cover the fact Maguire has the turning circle of Saturn. We need someone who can effectively tackle and that really is his key skill.

And given his propensity to get nose bleeds anywhere north of the half way line it means we’re unlikely to concede goals like that one against Istanbul in the Under-7’s third division b-team invitational.

I may have missed something obvious like his lack of sensing danger rather than his skill in snuffing it out but it’s worth a go no?
Joe

Why should Klopp credit Rodgers?
A few retorts to the email from Benoni Bru.

(1)If Utd win Sat night they are not 1 point off the top of the league,they are 2.
This is not a good start as you have gotten 130 pens in these 10 games and have not played ONE of last seasons top 6 away from home yet.
Has this ever happened in the PL before?(the lack of tough away games,not the pens).
By Jan 1st Utd will not have played one of Liverpool,City,Spurs,Chelsea,Arsenal or Wolves away from home.(they play Leicester Stephens Day).That does not feel right.

(2)”Klopp has credited Rodgers for helping him get where they are”.
Must have missed that.
5 months before Klopp took over Liverpool lost 6-1 at Stoke.
He inherited a squad that included Mignolet, Moreno,Lucas,Sakho,Skrtel,Allen,Benteke,Ibe,Clyne and Adam bloody Bogdan…& Sterling was sold 3 months before Klopp took over.
I’d love to know what precisely you think he should be crediting Rodgers for??.
Ferg, Cork. 

Sixth, not fourth
Interesting mail from BenoniBru this morning. Unfortunately United are not “4th”, they are 6th and if they beat City on Saturday they do not go “1 point off the top team”, you will go 2 points off the top team. Alot of “ifs” in there mate.

I’d also say the reason most United fans are annoyed with the champions league situation is, yes you did draw last years finalist and another semi finalist, however you did beat both of these teams in your first 2 games of the competition and had 9 points after 4 games in the group stage and still didn’t qualify out of it.
Robbie DFC

Minor gripe in amongst such thrilling discourse between the positions of; ‘Ole is brilliant’ and ‘Ole is useless’ – it’s been claimed a few times in this dear mailbox section, typically to emphasise the good job Ole is doing, that Man United are 4th (fourth).

They are not. They are 6th (sixth). It’s quite a big difference.

Carry on though!
Dan Bigmore

Ridiculous comparisons
Can someone please ask Ferg, Cork to stop using ridiculous comparisons to illustrate how much money United have spent by including academy grads and then saying x cost more than a, b and c COMBINED (not sure why the caps are required).

It’s valid to say that both Liverpool and United broke the transfer record for a defender and Liverpool got a player befitting that status and United didn’t.  You don’t need to add Joe Gomez and say Maguire cost more than VVD and Gomez combined as it’s completely redundant and wouldn’t in itself make him bad value.  I mean, Mo Salah cost more than Kane, Son, Dele and Dier combined (we could even throw in a nearly new Harry Winks) but it doesn’t make him a bad signing does it?
Phil, London

Griezmann a no go for Arsenal?
As per Peter. Andulucia’s letter – does this mean Griezmann will also now never be allowed to play for Arsenal?
Baz

Klopp is New Flanders
Since reading Curtis’ Simpsons analogy, I am now picturing Pep as Homer, Jurgen Klopp as Ned Flanders, Roy Hodgson as Grandpa Simpson, Gavin Peacock as Reverend Lovejoy and Terry Venables as the dodgy bloke who wanted a monorail running through Springfield.

Don’t ask me why.  It’s been a strange year.
@rubym83

Curtis seems to forget that Homer won the game after being distracted by Mr Burns. Homer is then celebrated as the big hero. Leaving that bit out is very important as it totally negates the comparison to Ole.

Don’t leave out important details you gowl.
Culk the Younger