Revealed: The truth about £16m Chelsea Andrey Santos deal after new work permit twist
Chelsea have likely deferred the arrival of Brazilian sensation Andrey Santos because he would have missed out on a work permit by one or two points, Football Insider has been told.
The 18-year-old midfielder signed for Chelsea from Vasco de Gama for £16million in January, but he has not been registered in Graham Potters’s squad for the second half of the Premier League campaign.
There have been conflicting updates about Santos‘s work permit status, with some outlets claiming that the wonderkid failed the application process by a single point and others that Chelsea are simply yet to apply for a visa.
The 11-time Brazil under-20 star was due to be loaned to Palmeiras imminently, although reports suggest that talks between Chelsea and the São Paulo-based club have stalled over the length of the proposed temporary deal.
That has led some fans to question whether the acquisition of Santos was always intended to be on a buy-to-loan basis or whether Chelsea believed he might qualify for visa on an exceptional basis to play in England upon his arrival.
Players targeted by English clubs from foreign leagues must accrue 15 points under the FA’s post-Brexit system to qualify for a visa automatically, while any player with 10 or more points is eligible to go before an appeals panel.
Points are issued according to criteria such as the number of international caps a player has amassed or the number of appearances they have made in elite domestic or continental competitions.
Hateem Ali, immigration partner at JMW Solicitors London, explained the intricacies of the Governing Body Endorsement system and why Chelsea may have chosen to defer the application process in the case of Santos.
“As it currently stands Chelsea may feel that the application may not have been approved at this stage, so it would make more sense for them to apply in readiness for the 2023-24 campaign.
“By this time the player may have accumulated more points to strengthen the application so he can qualify automatically or under the Exceptions Panel’s process.
Ali reveals that Santos, who captained his country in their South American Under-20 Championship triumph last month, would likely have missed out by a handful of points if Chelsea did indeed apply for a visa.
“His career to date would suggest that he would have missed out by two points. In order to receive a Governing Body Endorsement from the FA, you need to achieve a total of 15 points.
“Signing for Chelsea would automatically provide Santos with 12 points, while the domestic minutes he played in the last 12 months – including those at his previous club in the Brazilian second division – would provide a further point.
Will Chelsea’s apparent strategy of sending Santos back on loan to Brazil pay dividends when the time comes for him to settle in West London?
“In Brazil’s Serie A – a league which heralds more points than less competitive competitions by the FA – he’d potentially get both domestic minutes in addition to game time in a top tier continental competition such the Copa Libertadores.
“Chelsea’s strategy to loan him to a club in Serie A would enhance the prospect that any application is more likely to achieve the required 15 points.
Chelsea could have applied to the Exceptions Panel if they believed Santos would not get the 15 points necessary to qualify automatically for a permit.
“The Exceptions Panel would review a case where a player achieves between 10-14 points,” Ali explained.
“A club can request an Exceptions Panel to consider their application, but the body will only recommend to the FA that the endorsement should be granted if it is satisfied that one of two conditions has been met.
“One is if exceptional circumstances prevented the player from achieving 15 points, and if those exceptional circumstances did not apply, the player would have achieved 15 points.
“The other is if the youth player shows significant potential and is of sufficient quality to enhance the development of the game in England and justify the Exceptions Panel recommending that a GBE be awarded.
Reports late last year suggested that the FA was considering softening its stance on the points-based system, which they have previously favoured because of its perceived benefits to the development of domestic talent.
“The Home Office is not directly involved in this process and they rely heavily on the FA as to how it assesses a player’s eligibility for endorsement.
“If there was to be any relaxation, there would still need to be communication between the two organisations to ensure that any proposed changes would be in line with the government’s overall immigration policy.
“Just from a practical point of view, any changes to the FA’s endorsement criteria are unlikely to happen during a season so I would certainly not expect to see any alterations made before the summer.“
In other news, Kieran Maguire claims £40m Chelsea deal to include “significant” clauses.