Here's how Brexit will affect Premier League

Earlier this week, all 20 clubs in Premier League expressed support for UK to remain in the EU

Following the British electorate’s decision to leave the European Union (EU), we look at its impact on English football leagues, especially the Premier League.

Earlier this week, all 20 clubs in the Premier League expressed support for the United Kingdom to remain part of the EU. Chief executive Richard Scudamore stated that the referendum was at odds with the league’s commitment to ‘openness’ and would make it more difficult to protect intellectual property rights, mainly in the form of broadcasting contracts and merchandise.

However, after the British public voted to leave, there will be a number of possible consequences that will greatly affect the Premier League and, as a result, European and world football as a whole.



Impact on transfer prices and wage bills

A Brexit vote will cause the sterling (£) to be weaker due to uncertainty about how the UK would negotiate future trade deals. There will also be less investment from overseas companies taking advantage of the UK’s access to the free EU trade market.

This will increase the price of signing players from overseas for Premier League clubs. For example, lets say that Juventus put a price tag of €160 million on Paul Pogba. A weaker sterling would increase the price Premier League clubs would have to pay to land Pogba from £113.4m to £144m -- a rise of over £30m. However, there would be no change in the cost of buying Pogba for other clubs based in the EU, such as Spanish giants Real Madrid.

This will also increase overall wage bills for Premier League clubs if players’ contracts are negotiated in Euros instead of Sterling.



Ability to sign players

Currently, about 65 per cent of Premier League players are from overseas. English clubs were free to sign any players with an EU passport because of freedom of movement of labour rules. However, what happens now is a big question mark.

The worst case scenario would be that the current rules on signing non-EU players would be applicable to those from the EU, too. These rules only allow signings if the player has played a certain percentage of international fixtures, linked to a sliding scale dependent upon the country’s FIFA ranking.

Had such rules been applied historically, then the Premier League would not have seen signings such as Eric Cantona and Cristiano Ronaldo when they joined clubs at that stage of their careers. More recently, champions Leicester City would not have been able to sign N’Golo Kante from Caen 12 months ago.

However, Brexit supporters claim that this will allow more opportunities for domestic players to break through into teams. In addition, this will have a positive impact on the England national team.



EU work permits

At present, many South American players can circumnavigate the FA overseas player restrictions through applying for a Spanish or Portuguese passport if their parents are from those EU countries or if they previously satisfied residency requirements in an EU country. Examples of such players are Angel Di Maria when he was at Manchester United, Diego Costa at Chelsea and Leonardo Ulloa at Leicester.

However, after a successful Brexit vote today, lawyers in Britian would have to look for loopholes so that Premier League clubs can sign young overseas talent.

Article 19 implications

Under FIFA rules, international transfers of players under the age of 18 are prohibited. These rules do not apply for players between the ages of 16-18 who are transferred within the EU or European Economic Area (EEA).

Therefore, Premier League clubs will not be able to sign young players from Europe. In recent years, we have seen starlets such as Cesc Fabregas, Paul Pogba and Hector Bellerin signed by English teams between the ages of 16 and 18 before developing into top-class players.

However, the prospect of being unable to sign players under the age of 18 will delight many foreign clubs, with the Premier League often accused of ‘poaching’ the very best young talent from academies for a miserly compensation fee.

In conclusion, Thursday’s vote will have a huge impact on the UK – economically, politically and culturally – but the results of the referendum will also influence the future of the Premier League and probably the England national team.

This article originally appeared on Goal.com.