One of the most engaging features of following club football is interest that is generated by the acquisition of football players’ services by club sides. The process of acquisition of players often involves professionals moving from one club to another.
Football pundits often consider the manner in which such acquisitions will either strengthen their teams or lead, by player departure, to a more balanced team being put out on the field of play. From a management point of view, there are a variety of reasons that induce transfers. Revenue generated (or saved) by these transfers is often critical in the financial management of club football. The sporting reasons range from team strengthening to personal management issues arising from team sport. Whatever the reason, the movement of football players is associated with some of the most complex features in sports law.
From an outsider’s view point, clubs acquire football players by identifying the player; making an appropriate offer in financial terms and dealing with the transfer issues. The reality is that the anatomy of a transfer is significantly more complicated. Over the years, various regulations and practices have come to crystallize into a narrow and elaborate regime of practices which makes its final understanding far more difficult than can ordinarily be envisaged.
To better appreciate the working ingredients of transferring players, it is important to understand the structure within which club, national and international football is regulated. World-wide, football is regulated by FIFA, a private association regulated under Swiss law with its headquarters located in Switzerland. It is at the top of the hierarchy of football. Under FIFA, are a number of continental confederations. These confederations are umbrella organisations of National Football Associations in each continent. The African Football Confederation is the one responsible for Africa as is UEFA for Europe. It is commonly agreed that UEFA is probably the leading confederation, given that it houses some of the most successful football clubs and the most prestigious cup tournaments in the world. Under these confederations are National Associations. The National Associations organise and regulate sport at national level. Clubs constitute the bottom of the pyramid and these are regulated both by national rules; confederation and FIFA rules. The transfer of players takes place across national clubs irrespective of national or confederation limitations.
The current practice as to movement of footballers is regulated by the FIFA’s Regulations for the Status and Transfer of Players 2008. In outline the registration of players - this being the aspect of the rules of the regulations that deal with movement players - is provided for between articles 5 and 12. Players can be divided broadly into two categories, namely amateurs and professionals. A professional is a football player who has a written contract with a club and is paid more than the expenses he effectively incurs in return for his footballing activities. In other words, players that have another regular working activity or employment besides their remunerated footballing activity are either amateurs or semi-professionals.
A player must be registered with an association to play for a club. A player may only be registered for one club at a time. The registration period is a timeframe fixed by the association concerned in which a player is entitled to transfer from one club to another and to register this new club. A player can be registered through the first and/or second registration periods. This is the period that is now commonly referred to as a “transfer window”. Once registration is effected, that player immediately becomes eligible to play for the new club, unless he is serving a disciplinary suspension.
Players may only be registered during one of the two annual registration periods. The first registration period being after the completion of the season and shall normally end before the new season starts. In some associations, it continues until the first month after the season has started, but in any event, this period shall not exceed 12 weeks. The second registration period shall normally occur in the middle of the seasons and may not exceed 4 weeks. The registration periods apply primarily to competitions and are meant to regulate these competitions by safeguarding sporting integrity of the ongoing championships.
Where a transfer involves a player moving from one association to another, apart from complying with the general provisions, such a player must obtain a document known as an International Transfer Certificate (ITC) from the association where he was formerly registered. The ITC shall contain a declaration that the holder is free to play within a specific association and from a certain date. An ITC may not be made subject to conditions. In particular, the validity of an ITC may not be restricted to a certain period and any clauses to this effect shall be considered null and void. In addition, associations are forbidden from demanding payment for issuing an ITC.
Football players are, sometimes, often loaned from one club to another. Any such loan is subject to the same rules as an outright transfer. The loan of a player from one club to another constitutes a transfer for a predetermined period of time. The conditions governing the loan of a football player, such as the duration of a loan and obligation to which the loan is subject shall be regulated by a separate written contract called a Loan Contract. A Loan Contract is, in principle, generally concluded between two clubs. The player is, however, often asked to co-sign it so as to give his consent to the transfer on a loan basis. The minimum period of loan shall be the time between two registration periods.
Where the loan is between clubs in different associations, administratively, such a loan is a transfer. An ITC must therefore be issued whenever a player leaves a club from one association to join a club in another association and whenever, on the expiry of the period of the loan, the player rejoins the association of the club that released him on loan. Since the loan is considered as a transfer for the administrative aspect of player administration, the loan of a player shall occur during a registration period.
There are other quite critical issues involving that are raised by the movement of players form one club to another. These would include the financial aspects (ranging from the determination of the compensation (transfer fee) from the buying to the selling club and remuneration issues); immigration issues (this relating to the ability of the transferring player to take employment in the country of the home association); economic migration issues (this arising from the movement of players from a smaller to a larger economy); contract issues (these arising from the termination of existing contracts from the selling club and the inception of obligations with the buying club). With each feature arises a series of complex legal issues considered and resolved before a transfer becomes both complete and valid. What is unique about football and the movement of players is that most of these features are all comprehensively resolved within a short period of time that the negotiations and the actual transfer takes place.