The government is due to roll out its EU settlement scheme this weekend, which more than 3m European citizens living in the UK will have to apply for if they want to stay after Brexit. 

But with no resolution to the parliamentary impasse, one particular group is increasingly concerned about its future.

The players of FC Deportivo Galicia, of the Combined Counties Football League in England, are predominantly Spanish and – despite assurances by both the UK and EU authorities they will be allowed to stay – many are worried.

The team’s star striker, Anton Fernandez, could barely speak English when he came to the UK three-and-a-half years ago, but has since secured a job as a primary school teaching assistant in Notting Hill, London.

His girlfriend, Alba Gomez, is a thoracic surgery nurse working in the NHS.

Both want to stay in the UK, but neither knows how or whether this will be possible once Brexit finally happens.

“The thing that worries me is that we don’t know anything,” said Ms Gomez.

“We just suppose we’ll be fine but maybe at the end they make another decision and we have to leave.”

The 27-year-old nurse, who has been in Britain for five years, added: “That would be really hard for us because of everything we have here now. We’d have to start from zero in another country.”

When Anton first came to the UK, he would wake up at 5.30am for an early shift in a restaurant and spend hours in the library after work to learn English.

“We’re here to work and try our best. We’re not trying to get jobs for English people – we just want to be part of English society, to help,” he said.

Anton’s football team, which is based at a social club in north west London, was started 50 years ago by a small group of immigrants from Galicia and now gets a grant from the regional government in northern Spain.

Peter Rios, the son of one of the founders, was born and raised in the UK and said it is an insult to have to fill in a government form to remain in the country of his birth due to his Spanish passport.

He said: “I don’t see why I should have to justify living and working in this country… I was born here, went to an English school and an English university. I see it as an insult.”

Mr Rios says some of the Spanish members of his club are already considering going back to Spain rather than deal with the uncertainty of a Brexit future.

It is likely to be a microcosm of the situation in European expat communities up and down the country, as the uncertainty over Britain’s EU exit continues.

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