Premier League clubs ‘want to relax restrictions on signing foreign players’ implemented after Brexit and ‘believe the FA are softening their stance because it could pump more money into lower levels of English football’
- FA are reportedly softening their stance on signing foreign players in England
- Premier League sides are limited in their ability to who they can sign from abroad
- A Governing Body Endorsement (GBE) system was implemented after Brexit
- This affected what players clubs from England’s top-flight could sign in 2021
- Now reports are suggesting that rules could be relaxed to help English pyramid
All 20 Premier League clubs have reportedly unanimously supported proposals to relax restrictions on their ability to sign players from abroad – and believe the FA are warming to the idea.
According to The Athletic, the subject of relaxing rules on signing foreign players was raised at a recent meeting of representatives from every Premier League club.
The report goes on to claim that FA chief executive Mark Bullingham also attended the meeting on September 21 and signalled to have an altered stance to the Football Association’s long-held opposition to relaxing the restrictions in place.
The current rules on Premier League clubs signing players from abroad were put in place in January 2021 following Britain’s departure from the European Union, which saw the Governing Body Endorsement (GBE) system introduced by the FA.
This heavily affected which players Premier League teams could sign from outside the United Kingdom, with clubs no longer able to recruit foreign footballers under the age of 18 while English clubs needed to meet a GBE criteria before being granted clearance to complete a transfer.
Premier League clubs reportedly want rules on signing foreign players from abroad relaxed
A GBE is relatively easily obtained for a regular international or a star player at a top club, but other players need to accumulate 15 points or more, based on a scoring system, which takes account of the quality of the league and competitions they are playing in.
Should the necessary 15 points be met, the price of the player involved in the deal with inevitably go up as a result.
Under this points system, leagues around the world are placed into…