{"id":6220,"date":"2025-01-02T00:59:57","date_gmt":"2025-01-02T00:59:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/betwealthsuretips.com\/blog\/january-transfer-window-how-do-transfers-work-are-there-rules\/"},"modified":"2025-01-02T01:00:01","modified_gmt":"2025-01-02T01:00:01","slug":"january-transfer-window-how-do-transfers-work-are-there-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/betwealthsuretips.com\/blog\/january-transfer-window-how-do-transfers-work-are-there-rules\/","title":{"rendered":"January Transfer Window: How Do Transfers Work? Are There Rules?"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/p>\n
\n

What happens during a transfer window? And are there any rules?<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/header>\n
\n
\n

\"Liverpool<\/picture><\/span>Image source, <\/span>Getty Images<\/span><\/p>

Image caption, <\/span><\/p>\n

Premier League managers have until 3 February 2025 to make changes to their squads<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Emma Middleton<\/p>\n

BBC Sport journalist<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

The January transfer window for English clubs runs from 1 January to 3 February 2025.<\/b><\/p>\n

Over the next four weeks, expect there to be subtle shifts and perhaps larger shake-ups to each Premier League squad.<\/p>\n

A list of completed transfers can be found here.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

What are transfer windows?<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
\n

These set periods allow teams to buy, sell and loan players, depending on things like injuries, needing to bolster certain parts of the squad or sell to bring in money – or release players to make room for others.<\/p>\n

Transfer windows were first suggested by national football associations<\/a> in the 1990s, but were not introduced in the Premier League until the 2002-03 season.<\/p>\n

The idea was to give players and clubs more ‘contractual stability’, external<\/span><\/a> – stopping football agents making deals at times that could jeopardise a player’s progress throughout the season.<\/p>\n

Managers also get reassurance that players will not be leaving for other clubs at short notice, allowing bosses to forward-plan.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

What’s different about the January window?<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
\n

There are two transfer windows per year. The first is in January. This marks roughly halfway through a club’s domestic season, and it is open for about four weeks.<\/p>\n

The summer transfer window is a bit longer, usually running for a period of around two months from mid-June.<\/p>\n

The January window is an opportunity for clubs to tweak their approach to the rest of the season – giving them the best possible changes to secure the title, push up the table, or get themselves out of a relegation scrap.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Clubs can not just let loose on spending.<\/p>\n

That is because of the Premier League’s profit and sustainability rules (PSRs), which state that over a rolling three-year period, clubs must not report losses of more than \u00a3105m.<\/p>\n

Last season, Everton and Nottingham Forest were hit with points deductions<\/a> after breaching the PSRs. PSRs have been criticised by some clubs<\/a> for being overly restrictive.<\/p>\n

Clubs must submit a squad list after the transfer window closes.<\/p>\n

A maximum of 25 players can be named in the squad list, and at least eight of these have to be ‘home, external<\/span><\/a> grown’., external<\/span><\/a> These are players who have been registered with any club affiliated to the Football Association (FA) or the Football Association of Wales “for a period, continuous or not, of three entire seasons, or 36 months, before his 21st birthday”.<\/p>\n

However, clubs can still bring in under-21 players because they sit outside the squad size restrictions. For the 2024-25 season, these players must have been born on or after 1 January 2003.<\/p>\n

Clubs can only have two players from other English clubs on loan at any one time.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

What actually happens during a transfer?<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
\n

Clubs can have discussions with agents and line up players before the window, but signings cannot take place until the window opens.<\/p>\n

A player is then transferred to their new club once a transfer fee – and other add-ons like loan clauses or bonuses – have been agreed on.<\/p>\n

Clubs will then have to provide the Premier League with all the documents needed to complete the deal, including the contract details and the conditions of the transfer.<\/p>\n

The Premier League will then check all these documents and permissions to work in the UK, should a player be coming from overseas.<\/p>\n

The final hurdle is for players to pass the ‘medical’ – testing everything from their body fat percentage to speed.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

<\/span><\/span>Image source, <\/span>Getty Images<\/span><\/p>

Image caption, <\/span><\/p>\n

Liverpool’s Trent Alexander-Arnold is out of contract this summer and has been linked with Real Madrid<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Who gets the money?<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
\n

A transfer typically involves the buying club paying the selling club a ‘fee’, almost like compensation for the selling club losing that player.<\/p>\n

The club that has just brought in the player will then pay their wages.<\/p>\n

Players’ agents will get a cut of the fee, but Fifa regulations cap the proportion of the transfer value agents can earn.<\/a><\/p>\n

Players themselves do not typically get a cut of the fee, but might secure a signing-on bonus from the buying club.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Can signings be made after the deadline?<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
\n

The deadline of 23:00 GMT is the cut-off. But clubs do not have to have announced all the deals made during the window by that time.<\/p>\n

On deadline day, clubs can sign a ‘deal sheet’, external<\/span><\/a>, which is a note confirming a deal has been made but which buys clubs a couple more hours to finalise the official paperwork.<\/p>\n

Deal sheets can only be utilised from 21:00 GMT on transfer deadline day.<\/p>\n

Deal sheets are not used in the EFL or the WSL. The SPFL allows clubs until midnight to finalise deals, should they have given the league sufficient notice that a deal was running to the wire.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

How can some transfers be ‘free’?<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
\n

Even after the transfer window closes, teams can still sign ‘free agents’ – players who are out of contract. In these cases, no compensation will have to be paid to an existing club to release the player.<\/p>\n

But, these players might not be able to play for their new club until the summer window,<\/a> the next time clubs can officially register their squads.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Do other countries have the same transfer window?<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
\n

The transfer window for European countries is broadly the same as for the Premier League, give or take a few days.<\/p>\n

World governing body Fifa sets out two annual periods for transfer windows, with the exact timings set by each country’s football association.<\/p>\n

This year, some countries – including Italy, Portugal and the Netherlands, external<\/span><\/a> – have transfer windows that close a day or so later than the Premier League’s deadline of 3 February. <\/p>\n

So, clubs from these countries’ domestic leagues could still purchase players from the Premier League, but Premier League clubs will no longer be in the market to buy.<\/p>\n

This year, the Scottish Premiership’s transfer window closes at the same time as the Premier League’s.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

When is the Women’s Super League transfer window?<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
\n

The Women’s Super League (WSL) January transfer window will be open from 1 January to 30 January 2025, closing at 23:00 GMT.<\/p>\n

Transfer windows were introduced in the WSL in 2014.<\/p>\n

With the women’s transfer fee record being broken four times in the past two years,<\/a> it looks like the bar for signing star players is constantly rising.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

More questions answered…<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
\n

Related topics<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/main><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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