Soccer’s Riches Meet Brexit Debate on Chilly Night at Stoke City
- Even an unfashionable provincial club has roster of EU players
- At risk is freedom of movement set out in the Bosman ruling
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It’s not easy to feel part of cosmopolitan Europe on a grey weekday evening in the downtrodden northwest English city of Stoke -- unless you’re at its soccer stadium.
The roster of players at Stoke City, the epitome of a mid-table provincial club, highlights the free flow of talent across the continent as well as the depth of the world’s richest soccer league. Now, after the season ended for most teams at the weekend with equally unglamorous Leicester City earlier crowned champion, the business side of the sport is concerned about another potential shock: a U.K. vote to leave the European Union in a June 23 referendum.