Transfer (association 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, but Dunkerque refused to pay the transfer fee of £500,000 that Liège were asking for. Bosman was left in limbo and his wages were cut by 75% due to him not playing. After a lengthy legal battle, Bosman won his case on 15 December 1995 when the European Court of Justice ruled players should legally be free to move when their contract expired.

The first high-profile "Bosman transfer" was Edgar Davids, who departed Ajax for Milan, but lasted just one year in Milan before moving to league rivals Juventus for a fee of over £5 million. The same summer, Luis Enrique made the controversial decision to let his Real Madrid contract run down by signing for league rivals Barcelona. In 1999, Steve McManaman departed his boyhood club Liverpool for Real Madrid, while Sol Campbell was arguably the most controversial Bosman transfer of all-time when in 2001, he moved from Tottenham Hotspur to local fierce rivals Arsenal. In 2011, playmaker Andrea Pirlo notably completed his contract with A.C. Milan before moving to Juventus. In 2014, it was announced Borussia Dortmund striker Robert Lewandowski would leave the club for league rivals Bayern Munich in the upcoming summer when his contract expired.

Another impact the case had was the rules regarding foreign players. Before the ruling was made, clubs throughout Europe were limited to the number of foreign players they could employ, and could only play a maximum of three in European competition. FIFA noted it was "disappointed" in the ruling, while Gordon Taylor thought the decision would have a major impact and would "lead to a flood of foreign players... to the detriment of our game". The ruling ensured a team could now choose to play a team of 11 foreign players if it wanted, as was the case when Chelsea became the first team to do so in December 1999. By 2007, the percentage of foreign players in England and Germany had reached 57%, compared with 39% in Spain and France and 30% in Italy. The last team to field an all-English starting line-up was Aston Villa in February 1999, nine months before the first all-foreign squad fielded by a club team in a football match.

2002: Transfer window created

Although there were leagues already implementing the practice, UEFA decided to enforce a continental transfer window in time for the 2002–03 season. UEFA chief executive Gerhard Aigner said that part of the reason behind making the transfer window compulsory was to ensure a partial stabilisation of club squads during the season and to "stop the confusion that has followed Bosman", and, with regards to it possibly damaging smaller clubs financially, he said it did not make sense that clubs would "depend on the transfer of a single player to survive the season". From 2002 to the present day, most leagues around Europe have two windows in which players may be purchased: the end of the season to 31 August, and then for the entirety of the month of January. In England, the club chairmen felt they were "reluctantly being forced" to accept the proposal, and FIFA eventually relaxed the rules regarding out-of-contract players, which enabled them to sign a contract with a new club at any time, thus not depriving football players of income outside of the season’s transfer window.

2003: Loan laws updated

In 2003, the English Premier League scrapped a law which forbade loans between clubs in the league. Professional Footballers' Association chairman Gordon Taylor was critical of the change, fearing the new system would "erode the sporting and competitive element of the game". In February 2004, Newcastle United allowed striker Lomana LuaLua to move on loan to fellow Premier League club Portsmouth for three months for a £100,000 fee. On 29 February, LuaLua scored an 89th-minute equaliser against Newcastle in a 1–1 draw, later apologizing to Newcastle supporters. The law was again changed to block players from playing against their parent club, a move which Graham Taylor was critical of. Long-time Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger has been critical of the rule on numerous occasions. In 2012, he asked for the rules to be changed so that only players aged 21 and under can be loaned; in 2013, he said the rule lacks "integrity"; and in 2014, said the system was "not defendable" and protects the clubs who loan players out. In 2013, Football League clubs voted unanimously to close a "ludicrous" loophole which had allowed Watford to loan 14 players from abroad, including ten from Udinese.

2006–2014: Third-party ownership controversy

On transfer deadline day in August 2006, West Ham United pulled off what was described as a "major coup" by signing Argentina World Cup stars Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano from Corinthians. West Ham's official press release stated Tevez and Mascherano had "been signed for an undisclosed fee and put pen to paper on permanent contracts", but that "all other aspects of the transfers will remain confidential and undisclosed". Mystery shrouded the transfer immediately with regards to who owned the rights to the players, and continued until three years later when Tevez signed for Manchester United. In March 2007, West Ham were charged over the transfers, with the Premier League claiming the club had breached two regulations, U6 and U18, which state respectively, "No person may either directly or indirectly be involved in or have any power to determine or influence the management or administration of more than one club," and, "No club shall enter into a contract which enables any other party to that contract to require the ability materially to influence its policies or the performance of its teams in league matches." West Ham escaped a points deduction, but were given a record fine of £5.5 million by the Premier League. Tevez was also cleared to carry on playing for the club, and he scored the goal on the final matchday of the season, which kept West Ham in the Premier League. Sheffield United, who were relegated from the Premier League at the end of the season, sued West Ham and eventually received a settlement of approximately £20 million.

Mascherano agreed to leave West Ham to join Liverpool on loan in January 2007, but had to wait for the Premier League to ratify the transfer due to the previous controversy, and the transfer was cleared three weeks later. On 29 February 2008, Liverpool signed Mascherano on a four-year contract, with a fee of £18 million paid to agent Kia Joorabchian. After Joorabchian had paid £2 million to West Ham, Tevez departed for Manchester United at the end of the season on a two-year loan, with United paying £5 million per year. After the loan ended, Tevez transferred to United's rivals Manchester City for a reported fee of £47 million.

In 2008, the Premier League banned third-party ownership in England, and in 2012, then-UEFA president Michel Platini released a statement in which plans to ban third-party ownership were revealed, stating that "the committee decided that the ownership of football players by third parties should be prohibited as a matter of principle", while then UEFA general secretary Gianni Infantino said, "Third-party ownership of players bears many threats and there are many issues linked with the integrity of the competition and it is really time to regulate that and to have a stance on that." In 2014, Platini again called for the practice to end: "If FIFA fails to act, we will address this issue in our own competitions in Europe. The UEFA Executive Committee has already adopted a position on this issue in principle, and we will see this through," also adding it is a "danger to our sport" and "threatens the integrity of our competitions, damages football's image, poses a long-term threat to clubs' finances and even raises questions about human dignity". He was backed by FIFPro, the worldwide representative organisation for 65,000 professional football players, who stated the rights of the players were "under attack". In September 2014, it was announced by then-FIFA president Sepp Blatter that third-party ownership was to be banned completely following an indeterminate transitional period.

2006: Webster ruling

In April 2006, Hearts player Andy Webster was placed on the transfer list by the club after Webster's agent attempted to engineer a move to Rangers. In late June, Romanov confirmed that Webster, as well as teammate Rudi Skácel, were in talks to agree a move to Southampton. Days later, Romanov reported the pair to FIFA after the players failed to turn up at the airport to fly to Austria for pre-season training. Later in the month, Webster invoked a new ruling in the FIFA laws which allowed players to free themselves from their contract and join a club in another country, providing they were in the third year of a four-year contract and gave his current club due notice, and was set to sign for Wigan Athletic. In September, the transfer was finally ratified by FIFA. despite a late attempt by Hearts to re-sign Webster. However, after playing just five matches for Wigan, he moved to Rangers on loan in January 2007 and was given permission to play following a complaint by Hearts. In May 2007, the tribunal to decide the compensation due to Hearts took place, with Hearts seeking up to £5 million, but were eventually rewarded just £625,000. Scottish Professional Footballers' Association Fraser Wishart described the ruling as a "landmark". In January 2008, after an appeal, the compensation fee was reduced to £150,000 by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). In 2007, Matuzalém invoked the same clause as Webster to break out of his contract with Shakhtar Donetsk, signing for Real Zaragoza. Matuzalém was found to be in breach of contract, and he and Zaragoza were ordered to pay £11 million in compensation to Shakhtar.

2013: Transfer of Neymar from Santos to Barcelona

In August 2010, Brazilian team Santos' 18-year-old homegrown striker Neymar was the subject of a bid in the region of £25 million from English team Chelsea, before he signed a new five-year contract. In June 2011, Neymar was again the subject of a high-profile transfer bids: Chelsea and Real Madrid were both reported as preparing offers of €45 million, before Neymar eventually turned them down to sign another new contract with Santos. In December 2011, ahead of the 2011 FIFA Club World Cup Final, it was reported that Barcelona had paid Santos a €10 million instalment for the guaranteed future transfer of Neymar at any point until 2014. A similar figure of €14 million was reported in March by Spanish radio station Cadena SER, which also reported a total transfer fee of €58 million had already been agreed between the two clubs. Neymar's father was quoted as saying Barcelona was a "great option" for his son. A year later, his father again spoke of a possible transfer for his son, saying he would leave Santos after the 2014 FIFA World Cup, taking place in Brazil, and that Barcelona was the "best path". The manager of the Brazil national team at the time, Mano Menezes, thought a move to Europe before the World Cup would be the best way for Neymar to develop as a player ahead of the tournament, while Neymar himself said, "I'm saying once and for all that I'm not leaving Santos right now."

On 25 May 2013, Barcelona announced they had agreed a deal with Santos to sign Neymar, who himself released a statement shortly afterwards, saying, "I am not going to wait until Monday. My family and friends now know my decision. On Monday I will sign with Barcelona." The transfer was confirmed on 3 June, with Neymar signing a five-year contract with Barcelona for a fee reported as £48.6 million, a fee later confirmed by Barcelona vice-president Josep Maria Bartomeu. Shortly after the transfer was confirmed, DIS Esporte executive director Roberto Moreno revealed that DIS had not been paid a proportionate amount that equalled their 40% stake in the player; the investors of DIS had been paid only €9.7 million, which Moreno said meant the transfer fee Santos received was just €17 million. Moreno threatened legal action to those privy to the inside knowledge of the transfer deal, saying, "I am going to wait one more week and then I will open a case in court to get access to the information." The legal action was pursued, forcing Santos to produce a document as evidence in which they claimed, "As Santos FC well knows, the total transfer fee for all the federative and economic rights of Neymar Jr was established at €17.1M as stated in the transfer contract signed by both clubs," and they denied any wrongdoing with regards to payments to third parties, stating, "Such amounts... will be shared among Santos FC, TEISA and DIS in the amounts contractually agreed between these entities." Barcelona also paid Santos a fee of €7.9 million for "preferential rights" for three other Santos players, which Bartomeu claimed was not part of the transfer fee.

In December, Barcelona club member Jordi Cases took the case to court in an attempt to prove "misappropriation of funds", claiming the total fee Barcelona paid was actually €74 million. In January, Barcelona released a statement in which they denied any wrongdoing, citing they had disclosed the €40 million payment to Neymar's parents from the beginning. On 22 January, it was announced that judge Pablo Ruz would gather information as part of a lawsuit against Barcelona president Sandro Rosell. Rosell resigned from his position as president the next day, and a day later, the details of the transfer were revealed by Barcelona; the transfer had in fact cost them a total of €57.1 million (£48.6M), with Neymar's parents confirmed to have received a €40 million sum.

On 20 February, Barcelona and Bartomeu were charged with tax fraud, and paid a "voluntary" amount of €13.6 million in the same week in an attempt to save the image of the club. Barcelona continued to defend their actions, releasing a statement stating that the club's "dealings with respect to this operation, and in light of all information available, was at all times in line with the relevant legal legislation", while Neymar defended his father's rights to the money he received as part of the deal. Bartomeu, who had been appointed club president following Rosell's resignation, reiterated the belief of himself and the club that the deal was fair and praised the transparency of the club to reveal all the details. The tax charges which had been brought against Bartomeu were dropped in September.

2013: FIFPro legal challenge

In 2013, FIFPro launched a legal challenge against the transfer system. FIFPro president Phillipe Piat said that "the transfer system fails 99% of players around the world, it fails football as an industry and it fails the world's most beloved game". According to FIFPro's European president Bobby Barnes, 28% of the money from a transfer fee is paid to agents, and that many players are not paid on time or at all. He claims this leads to these players being "vulnerable targets of crime syndicates, who instigate match-fixing and threaten the very existence of credible football competitions". Writing for the BBC
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