Premier League clubs have voted in favour of restricting buying activity in the Premier League from 2018/19.
At yesterday’s meeting between Premier League club chiefs, a final discussion and vote was held on whether or not to limit the transfer window and effectively close it before the season began given the numerous complaints from managers about the disruption it causes to their plans for the coming year – especially with late bids and players becoming unsettled.
This summer we saw two deals in particular, mainly Southampton’s Virgil van Dijk and arguably West Bromwich Albion’s Jonny Evans, but the new change voted upon yesterday wouldn’t de-complicate things when it came to Liverpool’s Philippe Coutinho and Barcelona’s interest.
That is because the amendment that was passed – not unanimously – will see the buying transfer window close at 5pm on the Thursday before the Premier League campaign kicks off.
Clubs can still sell players until the end of the normal transfer window and that continues to close on August 31.
In effect the buying window for Premier League clubs will close on August 9, but clubs can still sell abroad and to the Football League until August 31.
As it stands, with the EFL yet to meet to discuss the matter, whilst they are broadly in favour of such a change, their window remains unaltered at this stage.
The newly amended Premier League transfer (buy) window isn’t however shorter, it will begin earlier to compensate and will remain 12 weeks long as per FIFA rules.
14 clubs voted in favour of the change, which was the minimum required to pass the amendment, with five voting against and one abstention.
Whilst the Premier League may be out of whack with Europe hugely given this change, the rumblings from Europe and FIFA themselves are that other league’s could now soon follow suit but whether they do before or after they see it in practice remains to be seen – especially as with the financial power of the Premier League, many other European leagues may see it as a leveller.
