Today's referendum in the UK on whether to leave or stay in the European Union will have serious implications on the English Premier League. The decision to vote in favour of the so-called "Brexit" now means that by the time the country has fully left in around 7 years time, the immigration laws that affect those outside the EU will apply to everyone, and that includes foreign footballers.

So this is how it works, currently work permit regulations state clubs are only permitted to sign non-EU players who have performed in a minimum percentage of competitive matches for their country in the two years prior to their arrival. The higher a player's country is placed in FIFA's world rankings, the lower the percentage of minutes he needs.

Players from nations in the top 10 need only have appeared in 30 percent or more of their nation’s games. Such measures could have prevented Manchester United’s Spanish goalkeeper David De Gea, and West Ham’s French playmaker Dimitri Payet, from joining the Premier League.

Neither of them had notched enough international caps prior to joining in 2011 and 2014 respectively. Other notable names include Kurt Zouma of Chelsea, N'Golo Kante from Leicester, and Anthony Martial of Manchester United.