It might be about to get crazy for ballers with (only) a British passport.
5 years ago, my guy Chuck, (check ISO Podcast) gave me a call and said ‘I want to write an article about Brexit‘.
And the time is now upon us – out of EU’s sight and for many, out of EUs mind!
What? How? Why?
Well the what, I’ve just told you (in short). The how I’m about to tell you. And the why?
I don’t really know!
Ahem, but more on the ‘what’…
Brexit With The Flagrant Foul
Most leagues have some limits on how many players they can sign, mostly based on nationality.
4 types of players that you need to about in this post.
- Domestic players – the players that from the league’s country (example, British players playing in UK)
- Bosman A players – for the most part this means European Union players (it doesn’t really, for instance, Norwegian passport holders, also not part of the EU are considered ‘Bosman A’).
- Bosman B players – Some European countries that are typically not part of the EU, (think Serbia, Albania, Georgia, etc.)
- Import players – Rest of World (USA etc.)
I’m doing my best to give you the information you need without killing you by detail. So I will basically use ‘XYZ‘ as a non-UK league, from an country within the EU.
XYZ clubs will have to make their best roster (with a predetermined budget) whilst following the rules of signing max:-
2 x Import players
2 x Bosman A Players
Rest of roster must be domestic players
Based on what I have just written above, a British player can easily fit into the ‘Bosman A Player’ category. And the team can of course make the most competitive roster possible by filling the remaining spots accordingly.
So what’s the problem?
Doomsday aka New Years Day
Maybe you were toasting to a better year than last year, perhaps you were reflecting on the last year and setting goals for the next…
One thing that’s for sure is that whilst Big Ben was doing his thing – the overseas basketball market was getting a lil bit more tight for us tea drinking folk.
What once saw many ballers (the UK passport holding kind), compete for a Bosman A spot on a roster, is now literally a thing of the yesteryear.
Happy New Year! (by the way I’m back to blogging!)
That’s right, if competing with other EU candidates would have already been a struggle, you aren’t going to really like the news I’m about to tell you.
You’ll now be competing with Americans… Take that for what you want!
Now, based on what I’ve said above, some of you wise guys may challenge what I’ve said, by asking…
‘What about Bosman B, Tosin!?’
(Notice that for XYZ league, I didn’t include Bosman B?)
I’ll try and keep it short.
Now you see, for varying reasons, many leagues do not acknowledge Bosman B in their player signing quota.
For example, when was the last time you saw a Serbian player play in the BBL?
Two words.
Momcilo Latinovic (formerly of Cheshire Phoenix)
A few more words – Also a Hungarian passport holder.
…so Bosman A
In short, in this case, a UK passport holder – and newest member of the Bosman B club – would have to compete with imports, that includes obviously, going against Americans for spots, essentially a bigger talent pool, with limited spots
Yeah…
I guess there’s a whole new definition for Eurostep – Looks like British Basketball has just stepped out of bounds!
* Note, whilst this will likely not be the case in every league, it’s happening in more than enough of them to write about.
