The World Cup: U23 GBE Status Snapshots

Which young players who have taken to the field in the World Cup are eligible for a move to the UK?

This World Cup tournament has been really entertaining so far I think. I had been concerned about the temperature really taking the edge off the quality of the matches, but the goal average is high and the overall quality, despite also containing the lesser ranked nations, has generally been good as well.

The GBE and ESC rule changes coming in last week has made it interesting in terms of assessing certain players at the World Cup. Many players from lesser nations who are now 23 years old or over are pretty much impossible to bring to the UK because their ESC status is now ineligible, they would have to gather 15 GBE points to get into the UK, and for the lesser nations, this is not possible.

Autopasses are granted to players who play regularly for nations ranked inside the top 50, outside of that, there is no autopass available for a player.

A reminder of the current rankings, for the 24 month period, are shown below.

The autopass percentages are demonstrated here, as well as the number of points available if the autopass isn’t hit.

And the other key piece of information to show before delving into the main bit of the article is the ESC criteria themselves, which have remained the same, except the new age restrictions of under 23.

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Player Snapshots

The first cycle of group matches is complete and I have done a quick snapshot profile of any player who got on the pitch in those matches.

These are presented in chronological order with wider explanations available on some of the more interesting statuses.

It goes without saying that I have left out any British players, and also any players who already play in the UK.