In 2002/03, to protect the integrity of the game and after negotiations with the European
Commission, FIFA introduced the compulsory transfer window. While media outlets have
taken the term ‘transfer window’ and added drama and razzmatazz to create off-season
interest, the time-frame is essentially a registration period where clubs are allowed
to swap the registrations of their players for cash. This is why transfers can happen
outside of the windows, but the players can only be registered in the specific timeframe.
The history of this can be traced back to the start of professionalisation in England,
and a clause inserted into the FA’s regulations in 1885 which required all players to be registered
with the governing body in order to play in its competitions.
The specific windows were brought in to prevent ‘club hopping’ – the process of players
signing for multiple clubs during a given season or joining a club just before a crunch
game two days before the end of the season. FIFA recommends two transfer windows a season;
one longer one between the end of one campaign and the beginning of another and a short,
one-month window in the middle of the season. It is up to the country’s football association
to set the specific dates.
There are, however, exceptions to the concept of transfer windows. The most notable and
divisive of examples is La Liga’s Emergency Transfer Rule.
Under La Liga rules, if a player is injured for more than five months, the club in question
can apply to the league to sign a player under ‘emergency’ conditions within 20 days
of the injury occurring. This can be a player from another club in the top two Spanish leagues
or a free agent.
A Medical Commission then reviews the documentation of the injury and decides whether to grant
or deny the request. If granted, the club would have to unregister the injured player
to make space for the new signing and proceed to complete the transfer as usual.
While the regulation’s intention might be good in terms of protecting clubs from inadvertent
disaster, there are significant problems.
Firstly, the rule doesn’t state that the emergency transfer needs to play in the same
position as the player who was injured. A good example of this was Celta Vigo in June
2020. Having lost their back-up goalkeeper, Sergio Álvarez, to a meniscus tear, Celta
were granted an emergency transfer and signed ex-Manchester City forward Nolito.
The most substantial drawback, however, is the coupling of the rule with another relatively
unique regulation to Spanish football – the legal necessity for a buyout clause in all
player contracts – and the unequal consequences of this combination.
This gives the more established clubs in Spain a big advantage. The explosion of wealth and
inflation over the past three decades coupled with RFEF and La Liga’s historical appeasement
of the big two have led to Real Madrid and Barcelona becoming financial behemoths in
comparison to the majority of teams who make up La Liga. If they find themselves in a situation
to activate an emergency signing, they can essentially take their pick of the talent
lower in the league due to the necessity of a buyout clause.
This was perfectly exemplified by Barcelona in early 2020. The Catalan club were in the
market for a forward in the January window thanks to Luis Suarez’s knee injury (keeping
him out for four months) and were hotly linked to Beijing Guoan’s Cédric Bakambu and Valencia’s
Rodrigo Moreno. Two young forwards, Carles Pérez and Abel Ruiz, were loaned out to help
raise funds for a replacement, although neither the Bakambu nor Moreno deal was completed.
Just over a week after the closure of the January window, it was announced that Ousmane
Dembele would be sidelined for six months after surgery on a serious hamstring tear,
leaving Barcelona with just three forwards; Lionel Messi, Antoine Griezmann and 17-year-old
Ansu Fati. Barca applied for the emergency transfer and on 17th February La Liga gave
them the green light.
In search for a short-term replacement, Barcelona landed on relegation-threatened Leganés and
their star forward Martin Braithwaite. He had scored 6 of Leganés’ 14 league goals
at the time - 43% - and, when Barcelona paid the €20 million buyout clause, Leganés
were unable to sign a replacement. This added insult to injury; the small club on the outskirts
of Madrid had already lost a striker, Youssef En-Nesyri, to Sevilla when his buyout clause
was activated in January.
By the end of the 19/20 campaign, Leganés missed out on survival by a single point,
while Barcelona threw away the title to Real Madrid, with Braithwate scoring one goal in
his 403 minutes; in hindsight, it was a deal without many winners.
After this particularly egregious case, both FIFA and the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF),
lobbied La Liga to scrap the emergency signing rule. Shortly afterwards, however, Marca reported
that the league authorities had voted to keep the rule, at least for the foreseeable future.
A debate continues. There is a motion to force clubs to actually agree fees in future for
emergency transfers, removing their ability in that instance to activate release clauses.
Actual legislative change remains some way off, though, and for now this curious quirk
of Spanish football remains.