Brexit and the UK Sports Industry

This assignment examines the impact of Brexit on various sectors within the UK sports industry. It delves into the implications for football, rugby, cricket, and polo, analyzing how Brexit has affected player quotas, transfer costs, and international competition. The analysis considers the challenges faced by clubs and governing bodies in adapting to post-Brexit regulations and explores the potential consequences for both domestic and international sporting events.

Running head: EFFECT OF BREXIT ON UK SPORTS INDUSTRY
Effects of Brexit on UK Sports Industry
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EFFECTS OF BREXIT ON UK SPORTS INDUSTRY
Introduction
On June 23, 2016, in a referendum, 51.9 % votes were obtained from the United
Kingdom electorate with a favor to leave the European Union. According to the Treaty of
European Union, a member state has the right to withdraw from the European Union. The Article
50 of the Treaty of European Union was invoked by the government of Britain on March 29,
2017. The United Kingdom has to leave the European Union on March 29, 2019(Green et al.
2016).The Brexit will have serious impacts on the politics of the country, financial market,
economy of Britain. Sports will be no exception to the impact of Brexit. The sports of England as
well as sports played in the European Union will be impacted by Brexit. Sports like football,
Polo, cricket and rugby will have to face serious consequences after Brexit. The English Premier
League will be affected severely as the cosmopolitan nature of the league and the domestic and
global appeal will be affected if foreign players are restricted to play in the league. The effects
that Brexit will have on the sports industry of the United Kingdom are discussed below (Dorling
2016).
Discussion
So far, Sportsmen and women from the European Union (EU) did not require a work
permit to practice sports in the United Kingdom unlike the case of non-European citizens
because of the principle of freedom of movement. This principle of freedom of movement has
been of paramount importance for the English football. The criteria for players from non-
European countries to get work permit in the United Kingdom are stringent. Non- European
players must play in high percentage of matches for their national team before they can find a
work permit to play in the United Kingdom. Martial, Morgan Schneiderlin, N’Golo Kanté and

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Yohan Cabaye are some of the players who have not played more than 45 % of matches in
France since June 2014 and thus would not be able to obtain work permit in the United Kingdom
(Girginov 2017).
Without the principle of freedom of movement, more than 100 Premier League players
would have failed to gain the work permit of the United Kingdom. When players like Dimitri
Payet, N’Golo Kante , Anthony Martial, Dimitri Payet joined the Premier League, they were not
players of international repute, but the principle of freedom of movement enabled them to
receive work permit and play for the Premier League, same is the case with footballers from
South America like Diego Costa and Philippe Coutinho who gained citizenship of Europe before
starting to play in England and thus bypassed the stringent process to obtain work permit. The
executive chairman of the Premier League in association with the 20 clubs of the Premier
League, Richard Scudamore expressed their favor of Remain because the competitiveness of the
Premier League will be compromised to a great extent unless Britain remains within the
European Union (EU) (Campos 2016).
The eminent members of different sporting bodies were intimidated by the Brexit
referendum and feared that the votes obtained in favor of Britain to leave the European Union,
will change the entire landscape of sports in Britain. A lot of potential changes would require
implementation. The eminent personalities of sports feared that Brexit will snatch the freedom of
the European nationals to practice sports in the United Kingdom. The decision makers of the
sporting bodies will have to make the tough decision if they will develop new rules for European
nationals after Brexit or the European nationals will fit into the rules before Brexit (Lennox and
Shepherd 2017). The eminent members of the Premier League anticipated that Brexit would have
the drawback of not including rising talented players in the Premier League, because only

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players of high caliber who belong to the EU countries of high FIFA rank could be included in
the Premier League. Thus transfer fees and wages of the eminent players of the European Union
will increase and this high cost will have to be incurred by the clubs of Premier League
(Kierzenkowski et al. 2016). It can be argued that some people from Britain had a different
opinion. They were of the opinion that Brexit will make the English football more prominent in
the global sports if foreign footballers are dismissed from the top leagues and a nationality
restriction is imposed. There were people of the opinion that Leave vote will fulfil the dreams of
chairmen of Football Association to introduce quotas for English footballers which was not
possible so far due to the stringent European Law. If the European Law ceases to apply in the
United Kingdom, restriction could be imposed on foreign players by the organizers of sports
competition (Lechner 2015).
There are matters which demand more immediate concerns. Teenage players from the
European Union below the age of 21 who were affiliated to any club of the Football Association
or the Football Association of Wales for a period of 36 months or 3 entire seasons were
considered as players who were homegrown irrespective of their nationality and age. Brexit
would mean absence of these teenage players of European Union in the Premier League. Under-
18 teams of the Premier League have the presence of 70 kids. The strategy adopted by the
football in the United Kingdom is to invest in young players. This is a high-reward and low risk
strategy for talent acquisition and if the United Kingdom waits for two years in order to sign
these players, the pipeline of talent of the Premier League clubs would be affected (Alapartanen
and Kelly 2016).
The Brexit effect will not only impact football. According to Cotonou Agreement and
Kolpak Ruling 2003, the same rights as the players of European Union are enjoyed by the

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players of Pacific Group of States (ACP), Caribbean and Africa. This agreement enabled the
England and Wales Cricket Board to sign cricketers at a cheaper rate from countries like Africa.
Many players from South Africa, Caribbean and Pacific islands play in the domestic Leagues of
England particularly in cricket and rugby union. Andrew Strauss and Kevin Pietersen are
eminent players born in South Africa and 139 tests that were held in between 2014 to 2015
were played by England with the players born in South Africa. Mike Catt and Manu Tuilagi are
among some of the eminent players who are played in the English rugby union team and this
clearly reflected the high dependency that the rugby team had on players born in foreign
countries(Lawless and Morgenroth 2016).Thus, eminent sports authorities feared that the Kolpak
agreement would not be valid after Brexit and thus players from Pacific Group of States (ACP),
Caribbean and Africa would be considered as foreign players after Britain decides to leave EU
(Cho and Kim 2017). The premiership has been enhanced because of the 70 Kolpak players and
the sponsors and viewers could enjoy the cosmopolitan nature of the Premiership which made it
attractive. According to some sports management group, the favorable model of Premiership is
to have a combination of international players and players from the home country. However
many people presented a contradictory opinion that the Brexit will lead to the development of
players from the United Kingdom (James 2017).
Before Brexit referendum was passed, according to the Bosman Ruling, from the month
of May to September, players from Argentina who had grandparents with European Citizenship
got an opportunity to play polo in the English season. However, David Wood, CEO of the
Hurlingham Polo Association was of the opinion that Brexit might not impact the players of
international repute whose presence would be vital in the main tournaments of Polo; however

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Brexit will adversely affect handicapped players from foreign countries who have European
grandparents (Hunt and Wheeler 2016).
Conclusion
It can be concluded that the rule of foreign player was not applicable to the players from
European Union or from countries like Fiji, Tonga, South Africa and Samoa as these countries
have signed association agreement with the European Union. This agreement allows the players
from these countries to enjoy the same freedom of movement as enjoyed by the players from
member countries of European Union. The Brexit will make it tough for players of these
countries to gain work permit to practice sports in the United Kingdom and these players will
have a chance to join sports team of France or Italy. Football is the sports that will be most
affected. The influx of youth players from European Union is under-18 Premier league was a low
investment talent acquisition strategy adopted by Britain which will be adversely affected. The
transfer and wages expense to sign players of international repute would increase cost of the
clubs of Premier League. Besides football, rugby, cricket and polo will also be affected.
However the quota of British players would increase in these teams.

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Reference Lists
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