Žan Vipotnik and what the Swans had to go through to get his working visa

Swansea City have played the international transfer market extremely cutely this summer, and the type of signings brought in have given supporters of the club a lot of hope for the new season.

There are numerous loopholes for clubs to jump through to sign a ‘foreign’ player and make them available to their squad for inclusion in match day squads. Last year the ‘governing body endorsement’ (GBE) rules changed giving clubs like the Swans more flexibility when recruiting. So far this season Swansea have recruited three foreign based players - which without some external caveats is one less than the maximum an EFL Championship club can recruit in any one season.

Yesterday’s signing of Žan Vipotnik would have meant that the Swans had to get the GBE forms in pretty sharpish for this player. Speaking to one of our advisors on these type of topics this morning they made it clear that the application for Vipotnik follows a very tight guideline. In this case the process forms have to be completed and submitted by noon today. With that being done the FA then process the player via Home Office directives for an assessment of which criteria he has been transferred into the country on.

Our contact believes that Žan is different to the two players previously recruited last month in Goncalo Franco and Eom Ji-Sung. Žan has played at seven levels for his country Slovenia and is a current international for his country. His appearance ratio last season for Bordeaux, albeit in Ligue 2 satisfactorily meets with another area to prove. The fact that he was a free agent at the time of him signing doesn’t preclude him from a working visa as his work at Bordeaux is taken in to consideration.

As his employer the Swans will sign a sponsorship application even though he has featured for his country in UEFA competition. He featured in the Euros against Serbia picking up a yellow card, but remained on the bench for the games against England, Portugal and Denmark. This elevates him in to satisfying more eligibility criteria. Having started in the pre Euros game against Armenia and in the competition itself his points score for a traditional working visa will be elevated somewhat.

That’s how the general process works, and you have to again congratulate Swansea City and their astute to recruitment of this player in the face of stiff competition from other Championship sides.

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