Does anyone know how the game decides who should receive a work permit and who shouldn't?

I thought it had something to do with reputation and international appearances, but this doesn't seem to be the case. For example, in my third season with Reading I signed Brazilian-born, 19 year old Sergio Mota who obviously had a low reputation and no international appearances; he managed to obtain a work permit, however, Andrey Arshavin (who has 41 caps and a fairly high reputation) has been refused. Can anyone make sense of this please, as I'm confused.

To be eligible for a work permit:

* a player must have played for his country in at least 75% of its competitive 'A' team matches he was available for selection, during the two years preceding the date of the application; and
* the player's country must be at or above 70th place in the official FIFA world rankings when averaged over the two years preceding the date of the application.

From the Home Office website itself.

If the player doesn't meet the criteria above, they go into the appeals before a court, where the club tries to convince a panel why the player deserves a work permit (one cap off the requirement, outstanding talent like Anderson, etc.). In Football Manager, this roughly translates to reputation, and possibly CA, I believe.

I think the game may also look at PA as a few players I have signed have been given permits on appeal, they were players that were "labelled the next. . . " but not sure. I would like to see the game give you a reason why a work permit was turned down to be honest.

Thank you for the replies, that makes things clearer.

In fact, Mota is touted as "the next Zé Roberto" which might have something to do with it!

Anyway, I re-applied for a permit and was successful... which was nice.