Caribbean football players can benefit from ‘Brexit’ – Faizal Khan
Photo saved: Faizal Khan
Photo saved: Faizal Khan

WITH the Football Association, Premier League and English Football League agreeing to a points-based system to sign overseas players, post Brexit, Guyana’s Faizal Khan, a former FIFA Agent, now head scout for the Malta, Montserrat and Guyana football federations, believes that the new arrangements can benefit players from the Caribbean. He was at the time appearing on the acclaimed SportsMax Zone Show in Jamaica. Khan said, countries in the European Union have been the breathing ground for players from around the world, from the youth division, particularly from the U-17 level, with no chance or room given for players from the Caribbean. “For me, like everything, there’s going to be some pros and cons to it, but hopefully it’s great to see some CONCACAF’s U-17 and U-20 players being given an opportunity to sign pro,” Khan said.

The UK’s exit from the EU will also mean that clubs will not be able to sign players from overseas until they are 18. In the Premier League, the number of overseas U-21 players a club can sign will be limited to three in the January transfer window and six per season moving forwards. According to reports from the UK, from January 1, the day after the transition period of the UK leaving the European Union ends, clubs will not be able to sign players freely from Europe and instead players be will be required to gain a Football’s Governing Body Endorsement (GBE), like all other overseas players without the right to work in the UK. The GBE, as explained by SkySports, will operate a points-based system, where points are scored for senior and talented young players based on their Senior and Youth international appearances, quality of the selling club, based on the league they are in, league position and progression in continental competition and Club appearances, based on domestic league and continental competition minutes.

Players who accumulate the right amount of points will be granted a GBE automatically but those who fall short may be considered by an exceptions panel. Meanwhile, Khan, when asked about the possibility of the new arrangement affecting the popularity of the English Leagues, particularly the English Premier League, reasoned that on the flip side, it can force English Clubs to look at their English players based in the UK, instead of first searching overseas. Khan used 20-year-old Jadon Sancho, who plays with German Bundesliga club Borussia Dortmund, as an example, as players who were probably overlooked because of managers being enticed to first sign overseas players instead of some of England’s brightest prospects. The accomplished football scout and former FIFA agent, reasoned that Sancho, who is of Guyanese background through his father, had to head out to Germany in order to get a shot at the big leagues.

“I’m an Arsenal fan, but look at what Frank Lampard did last season, he was forced to use young players at Chelsea and look at the results. So there are a lot of young players in the English set-up who are English, for me deserve to be playing first-team football. A manager comes in and what’s the first thing he does and wants? He wants to sign a 50 million pounds (player) so no, I think it (Brexit) is going to force head coaches to shuffle the pack,” an animated Khan pointed out. Some pundits argued that It appears that with 15 points being settled on, the Premier League has had to compromise more than the FA. The ban on the signing of Under-18s and restrictions on Under-21 transfers, football experts and analyst said, will have a major impact on some clubs, while there will be concerns that the Brexit move could weaken the quality of the league, and drive up prices for English players, putting more of an emphasis on academy recruitment.

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