Scottish football is set for special permission to use pre-Brexit transfer rules until the January window closes – in a boost to the Old Firm’s hopes of landing Juan Alegria and Mark McKenzie.
The Joint Response Group made a special appeal to the Home Office earlier this month.
They are expected to be given the green light within 24 to 48 hours.
It means Scottish clubs won’t have to follow the stringent guidelines that have already been outlined for England, now the United Kingdom has left the European Union.
Scottish teams will be allowed to sign EU players freely and players who don’t meet the criteria could still be granted permits on appeal.
Rangers boss Steven Gerrard could sign Colombian striker Alegria and Celtic ’s Neil Lennon could move for US international defender McKenzie.
Under the English guidelines neither of those players would have fulfilled the paperwork to move to Scotland because they don’t have enough caps to hit the 15-point mark needed.
The change means Scottish clubs can still sign players from the likes of Austria, Croatia, Switzerland and Ireland.
Under English rules it would be hard for players from these countries to move unless they were full internationalists.
But it is a short-term fix and the system will need to be looked at again.
