Football Politics: In Or Out – The Effect of a ‘Brexit’ on the Women’s Super League

Written seven weeks before the EU referendum, this analysis asks what leaving would mean for the Women’s Super League. At present EEA nationals play in the WSL without restriction while non-EEA players need Home Office permission; leaving the EU would put European players into that second category. The WSL rules require a non-EEA player to have played 75 per cent of her country’s competitive A-team matches over two years and for that country to average 40th or better in the FIFA rankings, a flat threshold far more stringent than the men’s sliding scale. She Kicks estimates that around 35 per cent of EU players then in the WSL would not have met it. Two tables list every non-English WSL 1 player and the foreign-player count since 2011.