Work Permits

So I'm currently managing in the BSN my second year has just begun and there are two players who I am trying to bring in, however I am unable to due to turned down permits which I don't understand. Firstly one of these is Australian the other American. Two countries I thought would be likely to pass, but what I am struggling with is these players were both released from English clubs and have resided in Great Britain already 600 days. How come they could have a permit then but not now? And why did my scout reports never alert to the fact they may not get permits here?

Did you appeal?

The scout report normally tells you whether or not they need a work permit and if they are likely to br granted one. On the right hand side, in the section about transfer fee and wage demands.

I thought there was something like that, put the scouts didn't point it out, the assistant manager also had them as realistic targets.

Yes I appealed.

Perhaps it is to do with the quality of the scouts.

Your scouts may not be that good and failed to inform you, maybe!

Good quality players and/or players who have represented their country x amount of times can be granted discretionary work permits, over time they may no longer be considered to have sufficient quality, or haven't played for their country enough, to be thought worthy of a discretionary work permit by the powers-that-be.

Players from EU countries don't require work permits to play for clubs in any other EU country.

The rules clearly state:

1. A player must have played for his country in at least 75% of its competitive “A” team matches he was available for selection, during the 2 years preceding the date of the application;

2. The player’s country must be at or above 70th place in the official FIFA World Rankings when averaged over the 2 years preceding the date of the application; and

3. The application for a GBE must be made by a club in membership of the Premier League or Football League and the player will only play for clubs in membership of those leagues. Competitive matches

The definition of a competitive 'A' team international match is a:

- World Cup Finals game

- World Cup Qualifying group game; and

- Football Association Confederation game, for example:

- The FIFA Confederations Cup;

- The UEFA European Championships and Qualifiers;

- The African Cup of Nations and Qualifiers;

- The Asia Nations Cup and Qualifiers;

- The CONCACAF Gold Cup;

- The CONCACAF The Copa Caribe;

- The CONMEBOL Copa America;

- The OFC Nations Cup and

- The UNCAF Nations Cup

and

Where an application does not meet the published criteria, a club may request a panel to consider the player's skills and experience. In these cases The Football Association will refer the club's evidence to an independent panel.

Where possible the club's supporting evidence will be sent to The Football Association and other football bodies in advance for their consideration in order to allow an informed decision.

The panel will normally consist of representatives from the relevant football governing bodies together with up to three independent experts. The FA will endeavour to ensure there are no conflicts of interest between the independent experts and the applicant club. If the applicant

club wishes to object to the involvement of any of the independent experts it must do so in writing at least 24 hours before the panel hearing, explaining their reasons for the objection.

The panel's terms of reference are:

- To consider whether the player is of the highest calibre.

- To consider whether the player is able to contribute significantly to the development of the game at the top level in England.

The panel will make a recommendation to The Football Association whose decision will then be relayed to the club. The details of the voting will not be disclosed. Each member of the panel will provide written reasons for their own decision to the Secretary of the panel. A majority positive vote is required to approve an application (e.g. 4-2, 5-1 or 6-0).

Full terms of reference and roles of the panel members and the club are available to attendees. Clubs should note that, in respect of any application, there will only be one panel available (ie a panel and recommendation, followed by a decision). A club should therefore ensure that all evidence it wishes to present in support of its application is presented to the panel.

If the club has previously made an application that was unsuccessful at panel a further panel cannot be requested for the same player during the season. For these purposes a season is deemed to run from 1 June until 31 May.

Source.

Basically he has to play 75% of his countries internationals (barring injuries and suspensions) and the country has to be on average top 70 or better. If he fails this the club gets one appeal to prove that despite failing the criteria the player is good enough to deserve a Permit anyways. In real life the most recent example of failure I can think of is McDonald Mariga who failed a WP with Man City 2 years ago only to be snapped up by Inter, due to Kenya being too bad an international team.

These criteria were developed with the help of the authorities.

So for your example, both of those countries would pass, but the players would fail. And you'd have no chance on the appeal, as you wouldn't be talking to them if they were that good.

Thank you very much, that was an interesting lead and makes sense, I suppose since both of these players had been at premiership teams they were considered prospects or at least had a chance to become an influence at the high level, but any accomplishments at lower league level wouldn't impact the top level of the country and there would be no point.