These are the most important transfer rules
The World Cup in Qatar has barely finished and European leagues are already preparing themselves for the second half of the season. The English and Spanish leagues start on 26 and 29 December. The Italian Serie A will start a week later, on the fourth of January. In Germany, fans will have to wait just a little longer; the first Bundesliga match will take place on January 20. In between this tight schedule, there’s room for transfers. You can read everything about the rules surrounding winter and summer transfers in professional football in this article.
When does the transfer window open and close?
As in previous years, it is possible for players to make a winter transfer. The summer transfer period is always open for several months, often from June until the end of August. However, the winter transfer window is open for about a month. In the following schedule, you can see by country when winter transfer market opens in 2023:
- First of January: England, France, Germany
- Second of January: Italy and Spain
- Third of January: the Netherlands.
Each one of these countries' transfer window closes at the same date: on 31 January at midnight.
Transfer windows smaller leagues
Smaller leagues deviate from the above mentioned dates. Take, for example, the Polish transfer window, which opens on January 29 and closes on February 28. These different opening and closing times of transfer windows may cause problems sometimes. If Chelsea, for instance, want to acquire a player from Poznan, they have to move quickly and negotiate before both transfer windows close. It can also be difficult for a club like Chelsea when a player leaves late for, say, the Polish league, that they do not have time to arrange a replacement. Despite of these minor problems, the winter transfer window is always spectacular because rumours usually fly around like crazy.
Rules during the transfer window
What actually are the rules during a winter transfer window? After all, players have already been playing at their current club for a couple of months. Are they allowed to play in a different league after all those months or play against their former club?
Rules for competitions
According to the rules, players are allowed to play for their new club’s national league regardless of how many minutes they played elsewhere. So, a player who did not miss a minute for Manchester United is allowed to transfer problem-free to any other club. Furthermore, there is also no harm in a footballer facing his former club in case he transfers to a club that plays in the same national league, even when it is sensitive sometimes. Expecially during a loan deal, for example.
Rules for European tournaments
European tournaments have different transfer window rules. Currently, a club is allowed to register a maximum of three players for the play-offs in the Champions League, Europa League and Conference League. This means that if Real Madrid would buy four new players in a transfer window, the club is only allowed to register three players for the play-offs. As soon as the new season starts – in this case season 2023/24 – all newly bought footballers will be allowed to play.
Previously, players were not allowed to play in the same tournament on behalf of two different teams. Philipe Coutinho, who made the switch from Liverpool FC to FC Barcelona in 2018, was not allowed to participate in the Champions League play-offs because he had already played for Liverpool in the Champions League.
This rule has changed since the 2018/19 season. Now, players are allowed to represent different clubs in the same season in all three leagues – Champions League, Europa League and Conference League. Because of these rules, a player may have to play against his former club in the same tournament. For example, if Ziyech makes a transfer from Chelsea FC to Borussia Dortmund, then he’ll face his former club in the round of 16. It is also not a problem if a player has played for the Champions League and will now play in the Europa League or Conference League.
It is crucial that clubs notify the change of players before the third of February. If this doesn’t happen, then players are nonetheless prohibited from participating in one of the European tournaments.