Spanish clubs lose an exclusive LaLiga rule that could lead to a red-hot market closure, of fears and tensions. Until now, all teams they had a life buoy in case in the last fifteen days of the transfer window a club paid the clause of its footballers, giving the injured club an extra 30 days to sign a new player. This safe conduct is prohibited after the reform of the General Regulations of the Spanish Football Federation which has entered into force on July 1.
In the summer of 1997, a market closure situation arose that created much controversy in Spain. Barcelona took control of Rivaldo by paying Deportivo the clause. The Galician club barely had time to replace the Brazilian. For this reason, the employer’s association decided to create a safe-conduct for these affected clubs. If, in the last fifteen days of the market, such a situation occurs (a player terminates his contract unilaterally), the injured club would have 30 days to register a new footballer, even if the transfer market was already closed.
A situation that it will no longer happen in the Spanish competition, as Ramón Fuentes anticipated and this newspaper has been able to confirm. The RFEF published on July 1 its new General Regulations with some variations in its articles. One of those that affects the market is 124 (License application periods). From the Federation they point out that what has been done is to add a paragraph in paragraph 1 of said article that prevents those affected clubs from having those additional 30 days granted by LaLiga as a result of the Rivaldo case in 1997. “Outside of the authorized periods, the registration of any player may not be authorized., except in the exceptionalities of sections 2 and 3 of this article. Nor may registration be authorized outside of said periods in exceptional cases of registration as a consequence of the payment of a termination clause “, says article 124.1.
To Register footballers once the market is closed, there must be two situations, those stipulated in sections 2 (footballers unemployed) and 3 (footballers in gestation period) of said article. 124.2 being only applicable to men’s football.
This measure limits to one more the possibilities of movement of the clubs, which has its defenders and detractors. As could lead to a domino effect. If the club that loses the player in the last 15 days of the market signs in mid-September, that third team would also have the possibility of having another 30 additional days to strengthen itself and so on. What would leave less options to replace the clubs with less economic power.
Something similar happened with the Braithwaite case in which Barcelona was also involved and which hurt Leganés. Something that led the Federation to also change article 124 in September 2020 to avoid it. In this case, what was done was to delete the following rule from point 124.3: “the issuance of a license may be exceptionally authorized outside the regulatory periods. when a footballer from the squad causes sick leave or injury that entails a period of inactivity for more than five months, as long as the registration of the substitute soccer player does not require the issuance of an international transfer certificate “.