There has been a bit of confusion lately with the new post-Brexit rules on work permits for footballers and since it's something I've spent a little bit of time reading about I thought I would write out a quick good for people unfamiliar with it and particularly how it relates to Burnley in the current moment. I will link at the end the full regulations from the FA along with a very, very good blog post by James Nalton (World Soccer Mag, Guardian) which explains in much more detail for those interested.

Work permits are now awarded on a points-based system with players needing 15 points total from six categories. All categories are based on the 12 months before the application for a work permit. These categories are: international appearances, continental club appearances, domestic minutes played, final league position of player's club and what level the player's current club is. All exact point values can be seen at the link below.

I just want to make it clear before delving into a bit of detail specific to Burnley's current rumoured targets that the 6 criteria above are the be all and end all for this points-based system. It doesn't matter where a player is from, how much they cost, any other factor outside of what I've mentioned above.

The important point in the current moment is to do with the level of a player's club. My reasoning for this is that the Belgian First Division A and the Turkish Super Lig are both band 2 leagues. This means that players who play for teams in these leagues (most crucially Jackson Muleka and Samuel Bastion who are both contracted to Standard Liège) automatically get 10 points towards their application just because of who they play for as long as they have made one appearance in the last 12 months which both players have.

As well as the 10 points for playing for a club in the Belgian First Division A, players are also given points based on what % of minutes they played for a band 2 club. This means any player in these leagues who plays 40% of the total minutes in the previous league season reaches the 15 point threshold for a work permit. Samuel Bastien is very straightfoward, he played 59% of minutes for Standard in the league last season which gives him a further 6 points. This means that based just on these two criteria, Bastien automatically qualifies for a work permit. The exact % for Muleka is a little bit harder to pin down because he split last season between two clubs, but having played 34% of Standard's total minutes and 31% of Kasimpasa's it would seem clear that he also easily gets 6 or 7 points on this criterion too and thus easily qualifies for a work permit.

As a slight note of interest I came across while looking into this, Vincent Kompany qualified for a work permit simply on the grounds of having managed last season in a band 2 league so I am minded to agree with the suggestions on here that the seeming delay in his appointment had nothing to do with his work permit.

I will just stress again I'm not an expert on this, this is entirely my reading of the rules made available on The FA's website with the help of the explaining blog you can read below. However I do think I've got my head around it and just thought it might be helpful if others did too as it will hopefully be one less thing to worry about while we hope these signings go through successfully.

Sources:

https://www.thefa.com/football-rules-go ... sed-system

https://worldfootballindex.com/2020/12/ ... ertadores/

Excellent post daveisaclaret - explains it all very well.

Reports in Belgium today that Muleka did not arrive for training and could not be contacted
Bastian was not there either

Just to reiterate what CT says Dave. Thank you for taking the time to research it and explain it to us.

beddie wrote: ↑

Mon Jul 04, 2022 3:57 pm

Just to reiterate what CT says Dave. Thank you for taking the time to research it and explain it to us.

A bit clearer than it was with Luton Shelton beddie

well it sounds like Muleka didn't get his permit

Nori1958 wrote: ↑

Mon Jul 04, 2022 3:30 pm

Reports in Belgium today that Muleka did not arrive for training and could not be contacted
Bastian was not there either

Probably because he's signing for Besiktas. They pay quite big money in wages, despite not forking out big fees.

Feeling is that he probably held out for them because the money would be better.

Standard are at a preseason camp in Holland so it's probably not a huge shock he's not there if he's on the verge of moving.

Hmm, maybe someone should tell Weghorst that the Turkish Super Lig is only a band 2 league...just like the Championship...you know the one he thinks is beneath him

daveisaclaret wrote: ↑

Mon Jul 04, 2022 3:07 pm

As well as the 10 points for playing for a club in the Belgian First Division A, players are also given points based on what % of minutes they played for a band 2 club. This means any player in these leagues who plays 40% of the total minutes in the previous league season reaches the 15 point threshold for a work permit. Samuel Bastien is very straightfoward, he played 59% of minutes for Standard in the league last season which gives him a further 6 points. This means that based just on these two criteria, Bastien automatically qualifies for a work permit. The exact % for Muleka is a little bit harder to pin down because he split last season between two clubs, but having played 34% of Standard's total minutes and 31% of Kasimpasa's it would seem clear that he also easily gets 6 or 7 points on this criterion too and thus easily qualifies for a work permit.



Sources:

https://www.thefa.com/football-rules-go ... sed-system

https://worldfootballindex.com/2020/12/ ... ertadores/

Very interesting. I'm just going to have one little quibble. Surely if Muleka has played less than 40% for each of two clubs then his weighted average (I think the full rules suggest this is relevant) must be less than 40%. Having said that I agree with other posters that the problem is likely to be us being outbid on wages which I guess is bound to happen from time to time if we go for ambitious targets.

keith1879 wrote: ↑

Mon Jul 04, 2022 5:00 pm

Very interesting. I'm just going to have one little quibble. Surely if Muleka has played less than 40% for each of two clubs then his weighted average (I think the full rules suggest this is relevant) must be less than 40%. Having said that I agree with other posters that the problem is likely to be us being outbid on wages which I guess is bound to happen from time to time if we go for ambitious targets.

I'm the furthest thing from a maths person, but in my eyes by playing 40% of two clubs' full seasons, he's played about 80% of the season composite.

daveisaclaret wrote: ↑

Mon Jul 04, 2022 3:07 pm

As a slight note of interest I came across while looking into this, Vincent Kompany qualified for a work permit simply on the grounds of having managed last season in a band 2 league so I am minded to agree with the suggestions on here that the seeming delay in his appointment had nothing to do with his work permit.

Once you get the GBE from the FA you still have to wait for the Home Office to process the work permit.

Also worth noting VK didn't qualify simply on the grounds of managing in a Band 2 league last season, it has to be either 36 months cumulatively, or 24 months consecutively, in the last 5 years.

This is where I thought some delay may have come in. As he stepped down from managing duties during his first, player-manager, season it could be that he didn't have a consectutive 24 months until 2 years after whatever date he officially resumed managerial duties after that season? Probably not though, more likely just Home Office taking time to process the work permit.

daveisaclaret wrote: ↑

Mon Jul 04, 2022 5:37 pm

I'm the furthest thing from a maths person, but in my eyes by playing 40% of two clubs' full seasons, he's played about 80% of the season composite.

Do you add percentages together?
I'm not asking to be a dick, I'm asking because I don't know.
Like, for instance, if you sell something for £100 + 20% you get £120, but if you sell something for £100 +10%+10% you get £110.10p, or £121.00 depending on your accountant....

distortiondave wrote: ↑

Mon Jul 04, 2022 11:26 pm

Do you add percentages together?
I'm not asking to be a dick, I'm asking because I don't know.
Like, for instance, if you sell something for £100 + 20% you get £120, but if you sell something for £100 +10%+10% you get £110.10p, or £121.00 depending on your accountant....

I think the 40% is off the clubs full season not just the period the player was at the club. So in this case if the season was 40 games and the player played 40% of one clubs full season (16 games) and 40% of the other clubs full season (16 games) they would indeed have played 80% of the season (32 games)

Mattster wrote: ↑

Mon Jul 04, 2022 8:56 pm

Once you get the GBE from the FA you still have to wait for the Home Office to process the work permit.

Also worth noting VK didn't qualify simply on the grounds of managing in a Band 2 league last season, it has to be either 36 months cumulatively, or 24 months consecutively, in the last 5 years.

This is where I thought some delay may have come in. As he stepped down from managing duties during his first, player-manager, season it could be that he didn't have a consectutive 24 months until 2 years after whatever date he officially resumed managerial duties after that season? Probably not though, more likely just Home Office taking time to process the work permit.

Yes, two good corrections.

On the second point, my point was the delay wasn't due to any actual problems in getting a work permit. It is as you say possible that there was just a delay that was nothing to do with anything other than processing times although then it's hard to see why we didn't do what Rovers did and just announce him before getting the permit.

distortiondave wrote: ↑

Mon Jul 04, 2022 11:26 pm

Do you add percentages together?
I'm not asking to be a dick, I'm asking because I don't know.
Like, for instance, if you sell something for £100 + 20% you get £120, but if you sell something for £100 +10%+10% you get £110.10p, or £121.00 depending on your accountant....

DA has explained my thoughts on this very well, but my thoughts might be wrong.

Dave's are never wrong, only misinformed.

Devils_Advocate wrote: ↑

Mon Jul 04, 2022 11:31 pm

I think the 40% is off the clubs full season not just the period the player was at the club. So in this case if the season was 40 games and the player played 40% of one clubs full season (16 games) and 40% of the other clubs full season (16 games) they would indeed have played 80% of the season (32 games)

It's done on minutes, not appearances. Muleka played 2100 mins across a possible 3600 (40 games he could have played in across both teams). So he played 58.3% of the minutes for 6 points (both teams are Band 2), taking him over the 15 point threshold.

I would have thought most scouting/analytic departments now include an assessment of the likely outcome of work permit applications as a matter of course. I think you can assume these days that if we’re chasing an overseas footballer, we know we’ll get a work permit.

If you think about it, there are very few stories about footballers failing to get work permits. Certainly far less than there used to be.

Mattster wrote: ↑

Tue Jul 05, 2022 7:31 am

Screenshot_20220704-221326_Samsung Notes.jpg

It's done on minutes, not appearances. Muleka played 2100 mins across a possible 3600 (40 games he could have played in across both teams). So he played 58.3% of the minutes for 6 points (both teams are Band 2), taking him over the 15 point threshold.

I was just using appearances as it was a lot easier to explain the question I was answering around adding percentages up.

daveisaclaret wrote: ↑

Mon Jul 04, 2022 5:37 pm

I'm the furthest thing from a maths person, but in my eyes by playing 40% of two clubs' full seasons, he's played about 80% of the season composite.

Serves me right for not reading the post properly. I thought it said that he had played between 30 and 40% of the possible games for each of two clubs during the period he was at them. Thanks to you and several others for the correction.

So he turned us down for Besiktas essentially

Nothing wrong in that!