I'm not too sure, aren't his parents/grand parents British? I think they judge it by having played for the youth set up for a while, captaining the youth team as opposed to a couple of appearances This explains it a bit. http://sport.stv.tv/football/clubs/rangers/193378-explained-uk-work-permit-rules-for-footballers/.
With a name like Claasen his heritage is more likely to have Dutch rather than British elements. He was in the Ajax set up for a while, and moved to Belgium. He's played for SA national team 7 times in the last 3 years, but that's unlikely to constitute the 75% requirement of games SA have played in the last two years. Seems the appeal system is an option, but as Bruce says, it looks like a big ask...need a bloody good constitutional lawyer on the case. Anyone available - I'm tied up.
If SB has any doubts then i dont expect a contract offer to be made myself. The main stumbling block will be his lack of International games for his country. It is a catch 22 situation though. As he bneeds PL games to get into the national squad. As he has not had a UK work permit yet then a contract offer may just tip the scales. It would be his next work permit application that would be almost impossible if he failed to get the required number of caps after being a PL player. But the whole UK W.P. situation is a mess at times. Just look at the Randi Chase situation @ Castleford. It is a minefield without a doubt.
So you were...apologies, but I am pointing out that Claasen is unlikely to have the British angle in his favour. He might meet a good looking English chick in Brummy on Saturday, marry her & eliminate that problem.
That article does explain it better. It sounds like you need a solid grasp of the English language and need to prove that you'll contribute to the development of football in the country. I guess we'll have to wait and see, but I'm more confident that we'd get one through an appeal if we went for it. Be a shame to pass up on a player because we couldn't be arsed to go that extra mile for him.
Agreed. I have a feeling Bruce has been playing his interest down on this lad as behind the scenes the club are working hard on this permit issue - and not giving other interested clubs any momentum on the latter. I hope so anyway.
He's either shrunken or been lying about his height btw! There's absolutely no way that he's 1.76 m (5 ft 9 1⁄2 in) Looks like a midget on the field. Fryatt looked considerately taller than him and they should be about the same.
