How Brexit is changing Rangers' transfer policy: 'If we operate like we have - that will take us nowhere'

Revealing comments made by Ross Wilson in the New York Times last month, regarding the changes that must be made to Rangers’ recruitment policy because of Brexit's industry impact.

When Britain officially left the European Union in January of this year, football clubs were stripped of the privileges they were previously afforded through the freedom of movement. Gone are the days when a player from Europe could hop on a plane and easily sign for a British club.

Instead, a points-based system has been introduced that clubs must abide by if they want to sign players from outside of the UK.

According to Rangers’ sporting director, clubs will now have to “build strategies around” this points-based system as they evolve and adapt to the changing requirements Brexit is bringing to football.

Whereas previously, players could easily be signed from within the EU which perhaps led to recruitment being prioritised within the continent, now the playing field has been levelled worldwide for better or for worse. 

The challenge for clubs now is meeting those point-based requirements, a full run-down of which can be read here.

Points are given out based on a player’s international appearances and nation ranking at senior and youth level; the quality of club they’re joining from (measured by league position and league ranking); the percentile of appearances they make for club and country; as well as the continental competition, if any, said team partakes in. 

Sounds easy? If you’re a club playing at the top end of the super-rich English Premier League - yes. 

An immediate work permit is granted to any player who has featured for one of football’s top 50 national teams for 70% of games or more. Attainment of a Governing Body Endorsement (GBE) for elite talent is not the issue.

As Paul MacInnes wrote in the Guardian last year: “At the top end, meanwhile, there is enthusiasm for the new levelling of the playing field that means the next Uruguayan big name is now as obtainable as the next French one.

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"Luis Suárez, for example, moved to Groningen at the age of 19 to begin a career in Europe. He could not have come to England because he had no international experience.

"Under the new system, an 18-year-old Suárez would earn 13 of the 15 points needed for a visa and would therefore have a good chance of earning one on appeal with the FA’s 'Exceptions Panel'. We are likely to see more distinctive, more marketable talents coming to the top flight.”

But clubs in Scotland are rarely going to sign a player that qualifies automatically for a GBE let alone the next Luis Suarez. 

If you can sign from a Band 1 league (France, Germany, England, Italy, Spain), the points-based system is not a struggle. A player who has appeared in 70-79% of a team's matches in a Band 1 league earns 10 points alone, before continental competitions, international appearances or league position marks are added. 

Recruitment from lower-ranking leagues makes arrivals more problematic. For a full list of the detailed points awarded, league bandings and more click here.

So how does this impact Rangers?

As Rory Smith wrote in the aforementioned New York Times article: "Many of the markets Scotland’s teams have access to — in Scandinavia and the Balkans, say — are ranked in the lower bands of the Home Office’s criteria, and few of their teams compete in the later stages of European competitions.

"Rangers, for example, has started to take greater interest in players in South America, realizing that while it might no longer find it easy to sign a player from a traditional market like Scandinavia, a regular Paraguayan or Venezuelan international might sail through the application process."

Say Rangers wanted to sign a Finnish international who had played 100% of the minutes available for his country, but played his domestic football in the band 4 Czech division and had not featured in any continental competition. The said player would amass only eight points.

For players who don’t pick up enough points, there is an appeals process in Scotland available for clubs to make their case for an exemption. A club needs four of the six panel members to vote in their favour for an exemption to be approved.

However according to the Scottish FA GBE criteria, as things stand an exception appeals panel will only be available through the summer transfer window in 2021. 

All of the above shows there is no longer an advantage to signing from Europe as opposed to elsewhere, whereas beforehand visa regulations only applied to the rest of the world and not countries within the EU.

So why will Rangers likely target South America specifically moving forward?

“The world is much smaller now,” Wilson added. “There is more data available, more advanced scouting systems, more intelligence. We can access far more markets than we could previously.”

It is no secret that since Wilson arrived at Rangers and in the years before his appointment, Rangers were modernising. An “excellent, modern football infrastructure” was the vision he spoke of in 2019.

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It makes sense upon this levelling of the transfer market for Rangers to go further afield to identify, find and attract talent. 

They need to build strategies around markets where players with the correct point-scoring requirements can be brought in so that reliance is not placed on the exemption panel's approval.

A source working in elite level recruitment told the Rangers Review: “You can take a Venezuelan youth international who has played every game in the Copa Libertadores for a low-ranking team, but he is still a good player, and he will probably get a work permit.

“He will probably get 15 points because of the level of continental competition he has played.

“It depends on countries and competitions you look at. That means, Copa Libertadores, being a Tier 1 continental competition and looking at lower level teams, with lower-level salaries and transfer turnover. Those ones you’ll probably get a work permit for. And you’ll be able to afford them and they’ll make your team better.

“When was the last time Scottish teams actively looked in South America? Probably never.”

In short, the change in rules means there is no outright advantage to signing players from the EU over other markets, as they need to go through the same process and meet the same requirements a player from South America does.

Therefore, no change in how the club operates will by Wilson's own admission lead them "nowhere". Instead, Rangers must take advantage of appealing markets that were previously not so readily available to access.