Four years ago our country put on the most fantastic Olympics the world has ever seen. The London Games were a reminder of just how much Britain has brought to the world when it comes to sport.
We gave the world cricket, rugby, football, golf, tennis and even bungee jumping to name just a few. It wasn’t the European Union that gave the world those things, it was us – Great Britain.
While we are a global nation, there are many ways in which the EU holds our country back from achieving our full potential. Having an open border to almost 500 million people from within the EU restricts the Football Association’s ability to introduce rules to support young British players.
As the European Court ruled in December 1995, the EU Treaties forbid “rules laid down by sporting associations under which, in matches in competitions which they organise, football clubs may field only a limited number of professional players who are nationals of other member states”.
And by imposing restrictions on non-EU countries in an attempt to control immigration, British sport effectively loses out on talent from outside the EU. Currently players from within the EU can work in Britain, but those from outside must be proven internationals to satisfy Home Office criteria for a work permit. This blatant discrimination would end if we left the EU and took back control.
No one is seriously suggesting that if we left the EU people from Britain would not be able to play sport in other countries or people from other countries would no longer be able to play sport here. British people live, work and train in countries all over the world today, like Australia and the United States, and many countries around the world have visa free access to the EU’s Schengen area without accepting the supremacy of EU law or unlimited EU migration.
But what would change is our ability to run our own affairs and to do so in a more open, more democratic and wider world. Let’s say yes to Europe, yes to the rest of the world, but no to the European Union.