Solidarity Contribution (football)

In professional football, a transfer is the action taken whenever a player under contract moves between clubs. It refers to the transferring of a player's registration from one association football club to another. In general, the players can only be transferred during a transfer window and according to the rules set by a governing body (fulfilling the requirements of FIFA, continental and national bodies regulating the purchasing and selling clubs). A negotiated transfer fee is agreed financial compensation paid from an interested club, to the club that possesses the player's exclusive contracted playing rights. When a player moves from one club to another, their old contract is terminated whilst the player and their new destination club will both negotiate on new contract terms (or have earlier mutually agreed on the personal terms). As such, the transfer fee functions as financial compensation (paid to the club which possesses the existing playing rights) for the early mutually agreed termination of the contract of a professional football player. Transfer fees are contingent on the player’s current football abilities, future potential, duration of the existing contract, amount of future salary owed (within the remaining duration of the existing contract) and the willingness of clubs to agree on an economic equilibrium through supply and demand.

A transfer in Association Football differs significantly to a trade in American, Canadian, and Australian sports, where teams essentially trade existing player contracts. However, cash or contract obligation can be used instead of or with a player such as Major League Baseball and the National Football League to alleviate salary cap and other financial concerns. In some uncommon cases, however, transfers can function in a similar manner to player trades, as teams can offer another player on their squad as part of the compensation in the form of swap deals, in order to lower the financial compensation of the transfer fee.

According to FIFA, from January to September 2018 there were 15,049 international transfers of male players with fees totalling US$7.1 billion, and 577 international transfers of female players for US$493,235.

Most transfer activity is conducted during the European summer transfer window (European pre-season window), that overlaps in between 1 July and 31 August of any given year (both dates inclusive), with slight variations of both the start date and end date, for each respective domestic league. Prominent transfers also occur during the European winter transfer window of 1–31 January. Most notably, the transfer deadline dates of the transfer windows, are solely reliant upon the country jurisdiction of the purchasing club, in order to successfully perform the registration of newly transferred players (football clubs worldwide may agree to sell the playing rights of any contracted player at any time to another club whose country's transfer window is still open, in addition free agents may be signed at any time outside the prescribed transfer windows).

History

Early days of transfers

The concept of a football transfer first came into existence in England after The Football Association (FA) introduced player registration sometime after 1885. Before that, a player could agree to play one or more matches for any football club. After the FA recognised professionalism in 1885, it sought to control professional players by introducing a player registration system. Players had to register with a club each season, even if he remained with the same club as in the season before. A player was not allowed to play until he was registered for that season. Once a player was registered with a club he was not allowed to be registered with or play for another club during the same season without the permission of the FA and the club that held his registration. However players were free to join another club before the start of each season, even if their former club wished to retain them.

Sometime after the Football League was formed in 1888 the Football League decided to introduce the retain-and-transfer system, which restricted clubs from luring players from other clubs, thereby preventing clubs from losing their players and preventing the league from being dominated by a handful of rich clubs. From the start of the 1893–94 season onwards, once a player was registered with a Football League club, he could not be registered with any other club, even in subsequent seasons, without the permission of the club he was registered with. It applied even if the player's annual contract with the club holding their registration was not renewed after it expired. The club was not obliged to play them and, without a contract, the player was not entitled to receive a salary. Nevertheless, if the club refused to release his registration, the player could not play for any other Football League club. Football League clubs soon began to demand and earn a transfer fee from any other Football League club as consideration for agreeing to release or transfer the player's registration.

In 1912 Charles Sutcliffe helped establish the legality of this retain-and-transfer system when he successfully represented his club Aston Villa during the Kingaby case. The former Villa player Herbert Kingaby had brought legal proceedings against the club for preventing him from playing. However an erroneous strategy pursued by Kingaby's counsel resulted in the suit being dismissed.David McArdle, LLB PhD,
The Football League's player registration scheme and the Kingaby case
'', accessed 16 December 2012 In England, the "retain" aspect of the system was removed after a decision by the High Court in 1963 in ''Eastham v Newcastle United'' that it was unreasonable.

1995: Bosman ruling

The transfer system remained unchanged until the Bosman ruling. The ruling is named after Jean-Marc Bosman, a former Belgian footballer who in 1990 was registered with Belgian Cup winners RFC Liège. His contract had expired and he was looking to move to French team Dunkerque, Matt Slater said that "professional footballers do not enjoy the same freedoms that almost every other EU worker does", and that "players look at US sport, and wonder why their career prospects are still constrained by transfer fees and compensation costs". Barnes argues that "the system encourages speculative, unsustainable, immoral and illegal investment models like third-party ownership of players".

In 2017, FIFPro agreed to drop the legal challenge after they came to an understanding with FIFA, signing a six-year agreement to improve governance of transfers and conduct a review of the current system. Under the new terms, players who are unpaid by their parent club, mistreated or subject to abusive behaviour, are free to break their contract and leave.

2014: Co-ownership ends

In May 2014, the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) announced it would be ending co-ownership of players to bring Serie A in line with the other European leagues.

Medical examination

Players will commonly undergo a medical examination and/or physical fitness test before a transfer can be completed. Occasionally, previously unknown medical problems will be detected, potentially jeopardizing the transfer or the size of the fee.
Rarely, a player will still be signed by the interested club even if he fails a medical, as happened when Dominic Matteo failed a medical ahead of his move from Liverpool to Leeds United, who spent £4.75 million on Matteo.

According to footballer Shaun Derry, his first medical was as basic as him bending over to touch his toes to check the stability in his knees, but, as the knowledge of sports science has evolved, the medical now involves MRI scans, and, according to former Nottingham Forest physiotherapist Gary Fleming, ECGs are also performed to check for any problems with the heart. The person performing the medical will check all the major joints, ligaments and the player's sight. A player can fail a medical simply by being unfit, as was the case when Inter Milan tried to sign John Carew.

Failed medicals

One of the earliest, and most high profile, example of a transfer being cancelled due to medical issues in the UK was in November 1971 when Asa Hartford's transfer to Leeds United from West Bromwich Albion collapsed. Amidst a high level of publicity, the two clubs had agreed a fee of £177,000, a then record for Leeds United; but a medical examination found Hartford had a pin-sized hole in his heart, a slight defect he had been born with but had never impacted the progression of his career. On the advice of their medical staff, Leeds United cancelled the transfer. Despite this, Hartford went on to have a long successful playing career, including appearing for Scotland in the 1978 and 1982 World Cups, with his minor heart defect never causing an issue.

In the summer of 2000, Ruud van Nistelrooy looked set to complete a club record £18.5 million transfer to Manchester United from PSV. Van Nistelrooy was to be unveiled at a press conference four days later, but instead this was used to announce the transfer had been postponed over concerns about his fitness; he had not played for a month due to problems with his knee. The transfer was then cancelled after PSV would not agree to further medical tests, and the next day, he ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in his knee during a training session, leaving him injured for a year. One year later, Van Nistelrooy signed a five-year contract after passing his medical.

Throughout 2000, Wimbledon striker John Hartson's proposed multimillion-pound moves to Tottenham Hotspur, Rangers and Charlton Athletic all fell through after he failed medicals at each club. In February 2001, Hartson finally transferred to Coventry City.

In July 2003, Gabriel Milito's transfer to Real Madrid from Independiente was cancelled after the medical examination by the Spanish club. Real Madrid doctors said Milito's knees would suffer severe injuries in the incoming years. Milito then signed with Real Zaragoza, becoming one of the most successful defenders in La Liga. In the incoming season, Zaragoza went to win the Copa del Rey final against Real Madrid. In 2007, he joined Real Madrid's rivals, Barcelona, but at the end of his first season he suffered a knee injury that ruled him out for two years.

In 2008, Lilian Thuram agreed to sign for Paris Saint-Germain on a free transfer from Barcelona. During his medical, it was discovered he had a severe heart defect which had also ended his brother's life, forcing Thuram to retire.

In 2009, Milan were set to sign Aly Cissokho from Porto when a medical revealed he had a dental problem which could cause deterioration in posture and potential muscle problems, prompting Milan to cancel the transfer. Cissokho eventually transferred to Lyon one month later.

On transfer deadline in January 2013, Nottingham Forest were attempting to sign George Boyd from Peterborough United when it collapsed due to an inconclusive eye test. Boyd later signed for Hull City in February, and subsequently scored against Forest in a fixture in March and mocked them with a celebration whereby he used his fingers to make fake glasses. A permanent transfer was arranged in May.

Highest fees

The first player to ever be transferred for a fee of over £100 was Scottish striker Willie Groves to Aston Villa in 1893, eight years after the legalisation of professionalism in the sport. It took just 12 years for the figure to become £1,000, when Sunderland striker Alf Common moved to Middlesbrough.

It was not until 1928 that the first five-figure transfer took place. David Jack of Bolton Wanderers was the subject of interest from Arsenal, and in order to negotiate the fee down, Arsenal manager Herbert Chapman got the Bolton representatives drunk. Arsenal paid £10,890 after Bolton had asked for £13,000, which was double the previous record made when Sunderland signed Burnley's Bob Kelly a fee of for £6,500.

The first player from outside Great Britain to break the record was Bernabé Ferreyra, a player known as "La Fiera" for his powerful shot. His 1932 transfer from Tigre to River Plate cost £23,000, and the record would last for 17 years (the longest the record has lasted) until it was broken by Manchester United's sale of Johnny Morris to Derby County for £24,000 in March 1949. The record was broken seven further times between 1949 and 1961, when Luis Suárez was sold by Barcelona to Inter Milan for £152,000, becoming the first ever player sold for more than £100,000.

In 1968, Pietro Anastasi became the first £500,000 player when Juventus purchased him from Varese, which was followed seven years later with Giuseppe Savoldi becoming the first million pound player when he transferred from Bologna to Napoli.

In English football, the first £1 million fee occurred in 1979, when Nottingham Forest signed striker Trevor Francis from Birmingham City. Later in the same year, the English record fee was broken twice, with fees of close to £1.5 million being paid by Manchester City to Wolverhampton Wanderers for Steve Daley, and by Wolverhampton Wanderers to Aston Villa for Andy Gray. This was during a time when transfer fees were rapidly growing in English football, and the £1.5 million mark was finally reached in 1981 when Manchester United signed Bryan Robson from West Bromwich Albion. However, a change in transfer regulations around this time meant that all fees had to be paid in full within 12 months of the transfer being completed, and at least half of the fee had to be paid when the transfer was first finalised. Consequently, Robson's record fee remained intact for six years, when Liverpool signed Peter Beardsley from Newcastle United for £1.9 million. However, fees well in excess of £2 million had already been paid to English clubs by Barcelona, who had signed Mark Hughes from Manchester United and Gary Lineker from Everton in 1986. At this time, the highest transfer fees were mostly paid by Italian and Spanish clubs. Juventus paid Liverpool more than £3 million for Ian Rush.

The first £2 million fee paid by an English club came in the summer of 1988, when Tottenham Hotspur signed Paul Gascoigne from Newcastle United. Within weeks of Gascoigne's transfer, the national record was broken again when Tony Cottee moved from West Ham United to Everton for £2.2 million, and again shortly afterwards when Ian Rush returned to Liverpool from Juventus for £2.8 million.

In the space of two months in the summer of 1992, three transfers broke the record, all by Italian clubs: Jean-Pierre Papin transferred from Marseille to Milan, becoming the world's first ever £10 million player. Almost immediately, rivals Juventus topped that with the signing of Gianluca Vialli for a fee of £12 million from Sampdoria. Milan then completed the signing of Gianluigi Lentini for a fee of £13 million, which stood as the record for three years. In contrast, the English record fee that year was set at £3.6 million Alan Shearer moved to Blackburn Rovers from Southampton, a decade after the world's first £3 million transfer.

Lentini's transfer remained intact the world record fee for the next four years, although the national record was broken more than once in many countries including England. Shearer's £3.6million record fee was narrowly eclipsed 12 months later when Manchester United signed Roy Keane from Nottingham Forest for £3.75 million. In 1994, Blackburn Rovers paid a record £5 million for Chris Sutton from Norwich City, a decade after the world's first £5 million transfer. Then, in 1995, the national record fee was broken three times in six months – first when Andy Cole joined Manchester United from Newcastle United for £7 million, then with Arsenal's £7.5 million move for Dutch striker Dennis Bergkamp from Inter Milan, and finally with Liverpool's £8.5 million move for Nottingham Forest's Stan Collymore.

The 1996 transfer of Alan Shearer from Blackburn Rovers to Newcastle United, for a fee of £15 million, kickstarted a year-by-year succession of global record breaking transfers, as well as being the first time in decades that an English club had broken the world record for a transfer fee. It also reflected the rapid rise in English transfer fees since the creation of the Premier League in 1992. Five years earlier, a year before the new league's creation, the national record fee had stood at £2.9 million. Even Collymore's transfer 12 months before Shearer's was little more than half of the money paid for the latest record-breaking transfer.

Ronaldo moved the following year to Inter Milan from Barcelona for a fee of £17 million, which was followed in 1998 by the shock transfer of his fellow countryman Denílson from São Paulo of Brazil to Real Betis of Spain for a fee of approximately £21 million.

In 1999 and 2000, Italian clubs returned to their record-breaking ways, with Christian Vieri transferring from Lazio to Inter for £28 million, while Hernán Crespo's transfer from Parma to Lazio ensured he became the first player to cost more than £30 million. The transfer of Vieri led to the suicide of a Lazio fan, who wrote in his suicide note, "All that money for a footballer, but money is not everything in life," while the Crespo transfer prompted the BBC
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