At 11 p.m. local time on March 29, 2019, the United Kingdom will officially be a non-member of the European Union.
Brexit, once thought of as just the quixotic dream of British Euro-skeptics, will finally become reality. Forty-six years since it became a full member of the European Economic Community (later to become the European Union), it will be going its own way again, ending years of turbulent, if not also very beneficial, relations with its continental neighbors.
There will be things that will take some getting used to.
Current UK passport holders still have the European Union seal imprinted on theirs. And given that these documents take many years to expire, it will be some time to come yet before all of them will be without the EU name, unless, of course, the UK orders a massive recall of the passports of all its citizens, which could be very costly for the government and also inconvenient for the citizens. But do we even know what the likely scenario is going to look like for British travel documents? Quite frankly, no one does.
Consider also, for example, that today, thousands of commuters and people pass through the border between the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, without so much as a thought that they had crossed from one country to another. Unique in many ways, the crossing between the two countries has always been a borderless one, allowing people mobility and access even during the worst of the violence in Northern Ireland. So to even just contemplate the possibility that at some point it is possible that passports may require to be shown when making this once effortless crossing is completely unthinkable.
So it goes without saying that Brexit will profoundly change the face of Britain, probably beyond recognition.
The English Premier League (EPL), love it or loathe it, is now being hailed as the most difficult and challenging football league in the whole world. And hugely responsible for this success is the premiership’s ability to get some of the best players in the world to play there. Money talks indeed, and the money that the Premier League can offer talks really loudly. This is the reason that players like Mohammed Salah (Egypt), Sadio Mane (Senegal) and Roberto Firmino of Liverpool and others like Paul Pogba, Alexis Sanchez, Eden Hazard and their high-caliber cadre of world-class football talent choose to play in England than elsewhere.
But Brexit could potentially change the beautiful game, too.
While the UK is a member of the EU, continental players did not need to have work permits to play in Britain. So a French footballer would be treated similarly as someone coming from Scotland, as far as work eligibility is concerned. Once the divorce from Europe is permanent, the situation becomes more complicated.
In the post-Brexit scenario, a French player would be no different from a Senegalese footballer, as far as work permit requirements are concerned. And given that spots for non-nationals are limited, and there are stricter requirements for non-UK players to be able to ply their trade in the Premier League, the demographics of players on the pitch could change dramatically.
Where once clubs had majority of their players coming from outside the UK, we could be looking at teams in the future whose squads will be composed primarily of British talent. It’s not all bad, to be fair. What this means is that British players would have more exposure to the sport at the highest levels. And this can only be good for the national teams’ chances in future international competitions.
But what of the business impact? The EPL is a global attraction, whose international players add to its worldwide appeal. Would an exodus of foreign talent to other European leagues lead to fans gravitating to La Liga, for example? Time will tell. Along with so many other uncertainties that Brexit purposes, even the beautiful game may not remain so beautiful for Britain anymore.