EU referendum: Stars like Dimitri Payet and Anthony Martial could be put off Premier League following Brexit vote

Vaishali Bhardwaj24 June 2016

A top investment banker has warned the Premier League's ability to attract footballers such as West Ham's Dimitri Payet could be affected by the "shock" EU referendum result on Friday.

While it remains uncertain how the decision to leave could impact other areas of British life, footballers from EU countries could now have to apply for a work permit before signing for an English club in the coming years.

Investment banker Keith Harris, who has overseen the sale of several clubs including Chelsea and Manchester City to foreign owners, believes France internationals Payet - who signed for West Ham from Marseille last summer - N'Golo Kante and Anthony Martial along with Belgium forward Romeulu Lukaku may not have been allowed to complete transfers to English clubs had Britain already left the EU.

"It was a shock result," Harris told Sky Sports. "There are four players that we can reflect on and the impact they had on their clubs last year, who may not have been able to come in.

"Kante, who had a huge impact at Leicester, Martial at Manchester United, Lukaku at Everton and Payet at West Ham.

"I wonder how attractive the Premier League would have been and how well those clubs would have done without those specific players, and that's the kind of thing we are now speculating about."

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EU players could now be facing the same work permit rules that non-EU footballers have after they came into effect last year following new proposals by the FA.

Currently, a non-EU player playing for a Fifa-ranked top 10 country is eligible for a work permit if they featured in 30 per cent of national team games in the two years before applying for a work permit.

A player from a Fifa-ranked country of 11 to 20 would have to have played 45 per cent of their national team matches or more, with the number rising to 60 per cent for a Fifa-ranked country of between 21 and 30 and 75 per cent for a country ranked 31 to 50.

Payet, who only broke into the France squad off the back of his impressive performances at West Ham last season, would therefore have been unlikely to have been given a work permit had Britain already been out of the EU last year.

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