FIFA Set To Open The Summer Transfer Window
As Bayern Munich continues its march toward the title, things are getting interesting elsewhere. According to a report by RMC Sport, FIFA is set to allow leagues to open the summer transfer window in the coming weeks.
RMC Sport focuses on the repercussions for the French league, which has already ended and declared PSG as the winner, but the implications for the Bundesliga and by extension the Champions League could be immense.
According to RMC, the plan is to allow competitions to open the transfer window four weeks before the completion of the their respective leagues. For Germany and France, this means that the transfer window could open right away, allowing clubs to sell players to each other and make transfers from abroad (pending FIFA approval). Imagine seeing Leroy Sane in Bayern colors THIS season. Now that would be crazy.
Unfortunately, reality isn’t as fun as it could be. Players who complete transfers will not be allowed to play for their new clubs in the ongoing season. This probably extends to the Champions League as well, so even if Chelsea manages to purchase Timo Werner in the coming days, we won’t see him line up in the second leg against Bayern in August.
The report also says that FIFA is trying to negotiate an end to the transfer window in October instead of September to account for the disruption caused by the pandemic. This would mean an extra-long summer transfer window to offset all the uncertainty at the moment. The leagues are already conducting negotiations to finalize an end to the transfer period in October.
So that’s it then. We finally have a tentative date for when the transfer window will open. Of course, it’s unlikely that any major moves will happen before all the big leagues and the UCL have run their course, but this does have implications for players near the end of their contracts looking for a move. It will be interesting to see how the coming weeks play out off the pitch, given that this is an unprecedented situation for football as a whole.
