Kim Bo-Kyung’s Visa Nightmare Should be a Wake-Up Call to other Koreans
Kim Bo-Kyung’s attempt to resurrect his English football Korea is up-in-the-air after he failed to obtain a work permit for his move to Blackburn Rovers. Although Blackburn knew that Kim didn’t qualify under the new FA rules, they were confident that he would get a work permit, and Kim himself rejected several offers, and the chance of a new contract at Wigan Athletic, in order to try and join the Lancashire club. Unable to work in England for the time being, Kim Bo-Kyung will have to look for employment elsewhere, with possibly long lasting effects for his career. His unfortunate situation should be a wake-up call to all Koreans playing in Europe who could easily suffer the same state as Kim.
The English FA’s new work permit rules make it more difficult for non-EU players to gain a work permit. Players need to be regular players for a national team that is ranked in the top 50 in order to be eligible for a work permit, and even then, they need to have played in at least 75% of the country’s games in order to be eligible. There are exceptions, mainly if the player was injured and thus unable to gain caps that they would have otherwise earned, and if the player is worth a significant amount of money (if the combined cost of their transfer fee and contract is over £10 million). Just like how British politicians like to use ‘tightening of immigration rules’ in order to allow them to avoid real political problems, the tightening of work permits is political posturing by the FA in their attempt to hide their lack of success in improving the English game. While England still has significantly less football coaches than other large European countries like Germany, its playing fields are sold off for housing estates to be built on, hoofball is encouraged, and English players are afraid of playing abroad and expanding their footballing knowledge, England will fail to be at the same level as the world’s footballing elite. Preventing a dozen or so ‘bog-standard’ footballers from playing in England won’t change that.
The new work permit system affects Korean players significantly in two ways. Firstly, the way that the FIFA World Rankings ‘work’ (any ranking system that places Wales as the world’s tenth best footballing nation is open to serious scepticism) disadvantages Korea as they generally only play teams that are ranked lower than them and so cannot easily raise their ranking. As a result, they are destined to hover between 30th and 70th in the world even if they do moderately well in a World Cup. They are currently ranked 52nd which means that any Korean player looking for a work permit would right now would have to appeal (although they could easily be back in the top fifty next month due to the randomness of FIFA’s ranking system).
The second way in which the new work permit rules affect Koreans is the ‘75%’ rule. Although it only applies to ‘A’ internationals (so doesn’t apply to the East Asian Cup for example), there are many occasions when European based players end up missing these internationals. Kim Bo-Kyung missed out on the Asian Cup and has hardly featured for the national team at all since the 2014 World Cup, due largely to him being frozen out of the Cardiff City side by manager Russell Slade. Due to his lack of appearances, it is hardly surprising that his work permit was turned down. But the new work permit rules should be considered by all Korean players who wish to play in England.
Now more than ever, it is in Korean players’ self-interest to get selected for the national team and they should consider this when joining a new club. Even if it means earning less money in the short-term, it could have long-term benefits for their career. Although unrelated to work-permits, Bayer Leverkusen’s refusal to release Son Heung-Min for the Asian games (and his own decision not to play in the London Olympics) have meant that he has missed out on the chance to gain exemption from military service. The uncertainty created by this could cause bigger clubs to be unwilling to sign him in the future.
Although Kim Bo-Kyung’s career has been on a downward path ever since Cardiff were relegated from the Premiership, he has enough potential to play at that level again in the future. However, other Korean players can learn from his misfortune and be careful in considering their job offers in order to avoid the same fate.
The English FA’s new work permit rules make it more difficult for non-EU players to gain a work permit. Players need to be regular players for a national team that is ranked in the top 50 in order to be eligible for a work permit, and even then, they need to have played in at least 75% of the country’s games in order to be eligible. There are exceptions, mainly if the player was injured and thus unable to gain caps that they would have otherwise earned, and if the player is worth a significant amount of money (if the combined cost of their transfer fee and contract is over £10 million). Just like how British politicians like to use ‘tightening of immigration rules’ in order to allow them to avoid real political problems, the tightening of work permits is political posturing by the FA in their attempt to hide their lack of success in improving the English game. While England still has significantly less football coaches than other large European countries like Germany, its playing fields are sold off for housing estates to be built on, hoofball is encouraged, and English players are afraid of playing abroad and expanding their footballing knowledge, England will fail to be at the same level as the world’s footballing elite. Preventing a dozen or so ‘bog-standard’ footballers from playing in England won’t change that.
The new work permit system affects Korean players significantly in two ways. Firstly, the way that the FIFA World Rankings ‘work’ (any ranking system that places Wales as the world’s tenth best footballing nation is open to serious scepticism) disadvantages Korea as they generally only play teams that are ranked lower than them and so cannot easily raise their ranking. As a result, they are destined to hover between 30th and 70th in the world even if they do moderately well in a World Cup. They are currently ranked 52nd which means that any Korean player looking for a work permit would right now would have to appeal (although they could easily be back in the top fifty next month due to the randomness of FIFA’s ranking system).
The second way in which the new work permit rules affect Koreans is the ‘75%’ rule. Although it only applies to ‘A’ internationals (so doesn’t apply to the East Asian Cup for example), there are many occasions when European based players end up missing these internationals. Kim Bo-Kyung missed out on the Asian Cup and has hardly featured for the national team at all since the 2014 World Cup, due largely to him being frozen out of the Cardiff City side by manager Russell Slade. Due to his lack of appearances, it is hardly surprising that his work permit was turned down. But the new work permit rules should be considered by all Korean players who wish to play in England.
Now more than ever, it is in Korean players’ self-interest to get selected for the national team and they should consider this when joining a new club. Even if it means earning less money in the short-term, it could have long-term benefits for their career. Although unrelated to work-permits, Bayer Leverkusen’s refusal to release Son Heung-Min for the Asian games (and his own decision not to play in the London Olympics) have meant that he has missed out on the chance to gain exemption from military service. The uncertainty created by this could cause bigger clubs to be unwilling to sign him in the future.
Although Kim Bo-Kyung’s career has been on a downward path ever since Cardiff were relegated from the Premiership, he has enough potential to play at that level again in the future. However, other Korean players can learn from his misfortune and be careful in considering their job offers in order to avoid the same fate.
By Steve Price