West Ham are able to use their new affiliate club based in Austria to loan players, who are not eligible to play in the Premier League.
That’s according to finance expert and football pundit Kieran Maguire, who has explained the potential benefits of allowing young players to play for their affiliate club, which according to recent reports is Klagenfurt, in order to help them reach the criteria to play in the Premier League.
“If West Ham do acquire an affiliate club it will give them more flexibility in terms of talent recruitment,” Maguire told Football Insider.
“If they spot a player that doesn’t have sufficient GBE points to be registered in England immediately, they can use the affiliate club as a holding area to give the player more experience perhaps domestically and internationally.
“Then once they have enough points to qualify for a GBE they can be brought to the London Stadium and introduced to the first team.
“We are seeing more and more of this moving forward.
“Clubs and owners are pooling resources in order to maximise long-term cash flows.“