Life In The Brexit Balance: A Soccer Player's Perspective On Leaving The EU
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Life In The Brexit Balance: A Soccer Player's Perspective On Leaving The EU

Having carved out a career in football overseas, Laurie Bell has experienced first hand how difficult it can be to live life chasing the next work permit. Here, he tells us what Brexit might mean for him.

This article originally appeared on VICE Sports UK.

Brexit means Brexit. But what does Brexit mean for me? And what does it mean for football, the game I love and make a living from? In 2016, the year of self-interest, such one-eyed wonderings are permitted. Of course I'm worried about Brexit's impact on the migrant crisis, the UK economy, the NHS and our environmental protections too. But like most of us, I'm primarily concerned about Brexit's direct impact on my life.

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I am a British footballer. For the last six years I have carved out a playing career overseas. For now, my British passport provides free entry into virtually any European league. Last season, that meant the Swedish Second Division. A hard Brexit, though, could put future foreign contract offers – and my planned career path – under threat. Same for hundreds more footballers. Our playing statuses could soon be in jeopardy; from the EU passport holders competing in the UK – in Premier League sides down to conference outfits – to British footballers abroad. So I am not the only sportsman following Brexit negotiations with keen self-interest and a considerable degree of fear.

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Admittedly, at this stage any speculation on eventualities concerning sport following Article 50's triggering is guesswork. My experiences in other football territories, though, tell me a hard Brexit would prompt a rush for work permits for non-British sportspeople competing in the UK (and vice versa), and major competition between the athletes who covet them. This is where the fear stems from. Already, my short career has been bedeviled once by work permit complications. It was the EU's freedom of movement rules that saved the day.

In 2015, I graduated from university in the US, where I had played on a four-year soccer scholarship while representing various other football teams throughout America. Upon receiving my diploma, my student visa expired leaving my legal status in the nation shaky. A period of panic followed; my life and footballing reputation were both tied to the States and I was not yet ready to leave. Eventually, I secured a professional contract in the USL, North America's third tier. Tulsa Roughnecks, my new employers, successfully applied for a work permit on my behalf, which I glued gratefully into my passport. Less than a year later though, the season was over and the visa was up. Winter was coming, teams weren't hiring, and my only option was to fly back to Manchester. I planned for my visit to be brief and Christmassy, but being in England made trialling in America impossible. Competition for limited numbers of international spots on US squads was already high. My agent tried, but convincing coaches to sign the foreigner who couldn't trial and needed an expensive work permit unsurprisingly proved fruitless.

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We make no suggestion that these people voted for Brexit, but they do nicely illustrate a point // PA Images

Meanwhile, the English league season was in full swing. I moved in with my parents and took a temporary deal playing semi-pro on boggy pitches. My career was going nowhere. I prayed for a new opportunity to present itself. Fortunately, it did. A Facebook message from an Englishman in Tulsa led to a patchy Whatsapp call to an Irishman on a football tour of Turkey, who in turn put me in touch with Ibbe, an Assyrian-Swede based in the city of Örebro. Ibbe told me that Second Division Karlslunds needed a midfielder before their season began the following fortnight. Football transfers, in my experience, are never straightforward.

Thankfully, swapping clubs within the EU proved permitless and painless. I agreed terms with Karlslunds immediately, and a week later I arrived. The ease with which I settled in Sweden – compared to the constant complications of living on temporary status in America – was striking. Paperwork was minimal. My English bank account functioned as normal. When I suffered a serious chest infection midway through the season, my European Health Insurance Card saved me thousands of pounds' worth of medical bills. Essentially, being a British passport holder playing football in the EU proved a gloriously uncomplicated affair.

On Swedish soil, my football blossomed. My new club enjoyed their best season for seven years, and my Player of the Year award stoked interest from teams in divisions above. After my winter crisis, I had the freedoms that define the European Union to thank for saving my career. Now, of course, for Brits abroad and Europeans in the UK, all of that is under threat. I was dancing around a maypole enjoying the Swedish festival of Midsummer when news broke we'd voted to leave the EU. On a night the sun supposedly never sets, the sky didn't take too long to darken.

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So how will football, and footballers, actually be affected by Brexit? Short answer: nobody really knows. All depends on how hard we Brexit, i.e. the terms on which we leave the European Union.

A soft Brexit would mean the UK remaining in the single market. In turn, the 'four freedoms' of the European Union – free movement of goods, people, services and capital over borders – would remain in place. Footballers are workers like any other. So in this version of Brexit, the game, at least at player level, would carry on virtually untouched.

Should the UK leave the single market, though, football will suffer the consequences. Every non-British player in the country would require a work permit, and the Home Office's criteria are stringent. Exact regulations are multifaceted and appeals can be lodged, but effectively, to be eligible to play in England, players from outside the EU – South Americans for instance – must be at least semi-regulars for their national sides. A hard Brexit would see that tough criteria applied to EU citizens too. More than 100 footballers currently in England by virtue of their European passport would not qualify for work permits, according to a BBC survey. Dimitri Payet, N'Golo Kante and Anthony Martial fell into that category when they first signed Premier League deals, proving the issue could affect all facets of the British game.

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This is the sort of beautiful Anglo-European friendship which could potentially be lost to a hard Brexit // PA Images

That is unless special measures are put in place for sport. It's difficult to believe a Leave vote will be allowed to so majorly impact football's top table. The sport's elite, I would hazard a guess, will find ways to turn a hard Brexit into a soft blow. Work permit rules might be relaxed but capped for sportspeople, driving competition high for a limited number of visas. Either way, money will most likely talk and Premier League clubs will sign the players they desire.

However, sink lower down the British football pyramid, and the effect could be pronounced. The reason there are so few South Americans playing in the Football League is not a lack of desire to mix it in the mud. I know Brazilians in America who would love the chance to play in Britain's lower tiers. Work permit rules prevent them. Most squads outside the Premier League feature at least a few foreigners, though, normally EU citizens. Unless rules change, a hard Brexit will signal a harsh goodbye for those continental journeymen without international caps making their living in the UK.

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In much the same way, a break from the single market will spell complications for Englishmen like myself abroad. Criteria for obtaining work permits vary country to country. While the UK's are tougher than most, no entry measure can be freer than free movement. For many clubs, particularly smaller outfits, the rigmarole of acquiring even inexpensive work permits will dissuade them from signing foreign players. In Sweden for instance, why opt for an English footballer without EU citizenship when a similarly-skilled German could seamlessly join the squad instead? (Er, my chipper changing room demeanour and all those goals I scored last year – remember?)

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News out of the European parliament this week that Brexit talks could include an "associate citizenship" option, allowing willing British citizens to still travel freely and live on the continent, is welcome. More such compromises will no doubt be mooted before our official EU departure is finalised. Still, for many footballers, waiting to learn the final terms of Brexit is like standing in the wall on a cold, winter matchday: we tremble together and pray we don't get hit. Over the free kick, imbued with the power of Roberto Carlos' left thigh, stands Theresa May. Like a La Liga megastar, she cups hands over mouth and keeps secret her strategy of attack.

Laurie (right) playing for the Tulsa Roughnecks // Photo by Lori Scholl

I reached out to ministers recently in search of clarity. "The UK's negotiations for exiting the EU will clearly not be brief or straightforward," offered the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. "We are analysing the impacts that withdrawal from the EU will have on the free movement of workers, including sportspeople." Brace yourselves, then, lads; no special plans in place for footballers yet.

Of course, there is the outside chance the ball rebounds upfield. A Brexit benefit isn't off the cards. Departing the single market without offering special treatment to European footballers could potentially offer more opportunities for British-born players in domestic leagues. The increasingly cosmopolitan arenas of elite academies and top-level squads might reestablish a more local influence. Who knows, Brexit could prove the catalyst for international glory. On all counts, we'll have to wait and see. In the meantime, I will wait and watch in trepidation, protect my balls, and pray.

@LBellBell