Work permits are not easy to get on Football Manager, and they can be quite expensive if you are playing at a smaller club.
Work permits are not easy to get on Football Manager, and they can be quite
expensive if you are playing at a smaller club.
What, then, matters in the work permit system?
Why do I need a work permit?
Manage in many countries in FM, and you will find that you can sign players without a single issue. Many countries do not have the work permit system in place, meaning that you can pick up players without having to wait on the country you are managing in giving you permission to make a signing.
Work permits, though, are a common part of not only football but real life. Especially in the United Kingdom, you need to do a lot of work just to land a player. The actual process of getting a work permit can be quite confusing.
If you have come across a player who is not from the nation that you are managing, then it might be hard to land a work permit.
The Brexit issue
If you manage in the UK, then, you will be dealing with a whole new work permit system compared to previous FM games. While the last few FMs since 2016 have incorporated some form of Brexit, the actual rules in real life are now in place.
It does not matter what you actually think about the Brexit scenario; in this case, the rules exist, and you need to adapt to them. This means that signing anyone outside of the UK is likely going to need some form of work permit to be provided. This means that if your scouts find you a young starlet in South Africa, Russia, Australia, China, or anywhere else outside of the UK, you will need to apply for a work permit.
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- One thing to note
- Any player aged 18 and above and is playing in a ‘top five’ league in Europe will be granted a work permit. However, these are obviously talented players, and it means often paying the kinds of fees and wages that it would be nigh-impossible to be rejected.
Work permit regulations
Any international who plays for a country within the Top 50 of the world rankings should be likely to receive a work permit, too. However, any country outside of the Top 50 has much stricter work permit criteria. You often find that your biggest challenge in FM – especially if you are not managing a club with big bucks in the bank – is picking up youngsters who can be bought low, developed, and sold high.
With Brexit and the like, it is much harder to land people from unfashionable nations. This means that if you are looking at a player from these kinds of countries, you should be prepared for your request to be rejected and thus need an appeal
Using feeder clubs
Let us say that you think you have found the first megastar to come out of the Chinese game. Exciting, right? However, they are highly likely to be knocked back for a work permit. What you could do is that you could sign them, lose the appeal, and take the player on anyway.
England has, without doubt, the strictest rules on work permits, whereas Scotland, Wales, and Ireland are much more likely to see you get a permit. Therefore, you could sign a player from a non-Top 50 nation, and loan them out to your feeder club. Spend enough time there, normally a few seasons, and they could soon land that work permit and thus sign for you. Scotland is the best choice as it has the best league out of the other UK nations, and it tends to be much more open-minded when it comes to work permit regulations. Nothing is guaranteed, but it will likely become a little easier.
Work permit costs
When you are managing down the leagues, boxing clever is always important, and thus you need to make your budget stretch. This means applying for a work permit costs you money, and every appeal and application cost you around £20,000. If you have less than £1m to play with in terms of budget, which is common down the leagues, you might need to be very selective about the work permits that you choose to apply for.
Apply for 5-6 permits in one summer, and you could see most of your budget chewed up just on appeals.
Removing work permits
Of course, you might simply want to get around this issue. Not everyone plays FM to be realistic at all times, and thus you might want to just get rid of work permits. You can download premade files on the Steam Workshop, or you can make the removal of work permits yourself in the FM Editor.
This takes a bit of work, but it could be done with a little bit of reading. You are looking to remove the need for work permits from the nation itself, which should typically be found in the ‘Nations’ subcategory.
If you already have a save running and have the In-Game Editor, you could simply load up the player you want to sign and choose ‘Add Nationality’ and include their UK nationality to get them signed up without any issues. It just depends on how comfortable you are making that kind of decision.
So, keep the above in mind when choosing, and you should find it easier to land the work permits you need. Don’t allow the system to stop you from being ambitious with your outside-the-box signings!
Conclusion
In conclusion, work permits are a crucial aspect of Football Manager, especially if you are managing in the United Kingdom. With the new Brexit regulations in place, signing foreign players outside of the 'Top 50' world rankings can be a challenging task. However, there are ways to overcome this, such as loaning players to feeder clubs or removing work permits altogether. It's important to keep in mind the costs of applying for work permits and to be selective with your signings. With this guide, you should be better equipped to navigate the work permit system and make ambitious signings for your club.
