Clubs hope transfers don’t take Brexit pounding

One question is whether players like French Manchester United target Paul Pogba would be eligible to play in Europe’s most high-profile and competitive league, given that talks on Britain remaining in the single market could drag on for at least two years.

More immediately, the decline in the value of the pound will make transfer targets more difficult to acquire.

“If the pound continues to fall, then foreign talent will become more expensive. That could have a huge knock-on effect in the summer transfer window,” Simon Chadwick, professor of sports enterprise at the University of Salford, told The Times.

 While fluctuations in the exchange rate shouldn’t unduly concern the wealthiest clubs such as Manchester City and cross-town rivals United, the mid-level Premier League teams will notice a difference.

Even with cash from a new record television deal coming in, a bid of 10 million (12.1 million euros, 13.4 million) for a European player rose by as much as 900,000 in the past two days, due to the slump in the pound’s value against the euro.

 West Ham’s largest shareholder David Sullivan — whose club had before Thursday’s shock vote made a 40-million euro offer for Marseille’s Belgian international striker Michy Batshuayi — reflected this concern.

“There are going to be a lot of implications for the Premier League and football in general,” he wrote on the club website. “If... sterling continues to fall against the euro, players at European clubs will become more expensive as that impacts our buying power. Even at this present time, where we currently owe instalments to clubs who we have signed players from, we will also lose out if the value of sterling falls, but every club is in the same boat.” 

Aside from transfer fees, European-based players may also demand higher salaries due to their euro expectations. “The Premier League is always going to be a net importer. It depends now on whether the transfer fee is paid in pounds or whether it is paid in euros,” Daniel Geey, from sports law firm Sheridans, told the Daily Mail.