When Taiwo Awoniyi bundled the ball into West Ham United’s net on the second weekend of last season, it was the first Premier League goal in 23 years for Nottingham Forest. For Awoniyi, it also was his first Premier League goal after a seven-year journey around Europe.

The Nigerian striker was signed by Liverpool as a teenager but was unable to play for the Premier League side as he could not get a work permit. Instead, he was shuffled around Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands on a series of loan spells. He said he was stuck in a catch-22 situation where he couldn’t get a work permit without playing for Nigeria, but couldn’t get called up by Nigeria without playing for Liverpool.

But the top young talents that Liverpool sign this summer transfer window might not have these problems.

The English Football Association has changed its work permit rules, effective as of June 14.

The biggest change to the Governing Body Endorsement criteria is that a new exceptions panel has been created. This offers a route to the Premier League for players that don’t reach the standard points-based criteria.

The exceptions panel rules allow Premier League and Championship clubs to have up to four players who don’t reach the points requirements. It’s not a free-for-all; the Exceptions Panel will only recommend players are granted a GBE if they missed out on the 15 points needed due to exceptional circumstances or if they are a youth player of significant potential and quality.

Awoniyi, who scored four goals to help Nigeria win the 2013 Under-17 World Cup might well fall into that latter category, although he was denied a work permit under a similar rule before the post-Brexit regulations came in.

Premier League clubs looking for bargains can use these four exceptions slots to allow them to sign the top players of the next generation without having to wait until they are established in a top league.

The top players in youth teams outside of Western Europe will be the players most likely to benefit from this policy, meaning they might not have to wait as long as Taiwo Awoniyi before making their Premier League debut.

The other change is that some leagues have changed bands within the points system, making it easier to acquire players from those countries.

Major League Soccer’s rise has been reflected by its promotion from Band 4 to Band 3, with the Russian Premier League moving the other way. This will make it easier for English clubs to sign players from MLS, and harder for them to sign players from Russia. Any MLS player who plays at least 80% of their club’s minutes will now be eligible for a GBE regardless of league position or international caps.

Band 5 has also been enlarged to include Italy’s Serie B and the top divisions of Hungary, Japan and South Korea.

The J.League’s addition to Band 5, combined with Japan’s FIFA ranking, means Japanese players who are regulars for their clubs could earn enough points for a GBE if they have played at least 0.5% of the available minutes for the Japanese national team over the past two years. Celtic have been giving Japanese players a stepping-stone to the Premier League, but these changes could give more top Japanese players a direct route to the top.