In professional association football, a transfer is the action taken whenever a player under contract moves between professional clubs. It refers to the transferring of a player's registration from one professional association football club to another. In general, the players can only be transferred during a transfer window and according to the rules set by a governing body. Usually some sort of compensation is paid for the player's rights. When a player moves from one club to another, his old contract is terminated and he negotiates a new one with the club he is moving to, unlike in American, Canadian and Australian sports, where teams essentially trade existing player contracts.
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The concept of a football transfer first came into existence in England after the Football Association (FA) introduced player registration sometime after 1885.
Before that, a player could agree to play one or more games for any football club. After the FA recognized professionalism in 1885, it sought to control professional players by introducing a player registration system. Players had to register with a club each season, even if he remained with the same club from the season before. A player was not allowed to play until he was registered for that season. Once a player was registered with a club, he was not allowed to be registered with or play for another club during the same season without the permission of the FA and the club that held his registration. The players however, were free to join another club before the start of each season, even if their former club wished to retain them.
Sometime after the Football League was formed in 1888, the Football League decided that restrictions had to be placed on the ability of richer clubs to lure players from other clubs to prevent the league being dominated by a handful of clubs. From the start of the 1893–94 season onwards, once a player was registered with a Football League club, he could not be registered with any other club, even in subsequent seasons, without the permission of the club he was registered with. It applied even if the player's annual contract with the club holding his registration was not renewed after it expired. The club was not obliged to play him and, without a contract, the player was not entitled to receive a salary. Nevertheless, if the club refused to release his registration, the player could not play for any other Football League club.
Football League clubs soon came to realize that they could demand and earn a transfer fee from any other Football League club as consideration for agreeing to release or transfer the player's registration.
The Football League's player registration system came to be known as the "retain and transfer" system.
In England, the "retain" aspect of the system was removed after a decision by the High Court in 1963 in Eastham vs. Newcastle United that it was unreasonable. The transfer system remained unchanged until the Bosman ruling.
Players will commonly undergo a medical examination and/or physical fitness test before a transfer completes. Occasionally, previously unknown medical problems will be detected, potentially jeopardizing the transfer or the size of the fee.
One method of club punishment used by the football governing body FIFA is a ban on transfers.
In 2005, Roma were given a one year transfer ban by FIFA, beginning on 1 July, when in September 2004, French centre back Philippe Mexès joined the club while still under contract with Auxerre. On appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in December 2005, the ban was reduced to end after the January transfer window, but CAS upheld the view that Roma had "not only encouraged Mexès to break his contract with Auxerre, but actively provoked the break."[1]
In April 2009, Sion were told by FIFA that they could not sign any players until the 2010 off-season, as punishment for signing Egyptian goalkeeper Essam El-Hadary from Al-Ahly in 2008 before his contract expired.[2] The club appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, who froze the sanction pending a ruling, expected by the end of 2009.[2] The ban was eventually lifted by FIFA.
On 3 September 2009, Chelsea were banned from registering any new players in the January and Summer 2010 transfer windows, after FIFA's dispute resolution chamber (DRC) ruled that French winger Gaël Kakuta had breached his contract with French club Lens when he joined Chelsea in 2007, and that Chelsea had induced him to do so. However the ban was quickly lifted by FIFA.[2]
The following table shows the top 15 highest transfer fees ever paid in GBP. Lists in other currencies differ due to exchange rate fluctuations.
European football experienced a "transfer bubble" fueled by rapidly rising television rights sales between 1999 and 2002, and fees then fell away significantly, before rising again towards the end of the 2000s. The three most expensive transfers since that time were all made by Spanish clubs in 2009, two by Real Madrid and one by Barcelona. In June 2009, Real Madrid purchased Kaká from Milan for a fee of £56 million, followed shortly thereafter by their £80 million purchase of Cristiano Ronaldo from Manchester United.
Transfer fees are not always officially confirmed by the transacting clubs, and figures published by unofficial sources may or may not take into account various fees (e.g. to agents), performance related elements of the fee, and the notional value of any players included in part exchange. This leads to different figures being given by different sources. Performance related clauses have become more common in recent years, meaning that it is harder to produce definitive lists of the largest transfer fees than was the case in the past.
The following players are ranked in order of the inflation adjusted fees:
For football coaches, the list is as follows:
| Rank | Coach | From | To | Transfer Fee (M£ ) |
Transfer Fee (M€) |
Year | Inflation adjusted fee (M£)[3] |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | André Villas-Boas[24] | FC Porto | Chelsea | £13.3 | €15 | 2011 | £13 |
| 2 | José Mourinho[25] | Internazionale | Real Madrid | £6.8 | €8 | 2010 | £7 |
By club
| Club | Highest transfer fees paid | Transfer Fee (M£) | Year | Highest transfer fees received | Transfer Fee (M£) | Year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Atlético Madrid | Radamel Falcao | £35 | 2011 | Sergio Agüero | £35 | 2011 |
| FC Barcelona | Zlatan Ibrahimović | £59 | 2009 | Luís Figo | £44 | 2000 |
| Chelsea | Fernando Torres | £50 | 2011 | Arjen Robben | £24 | 2007 |
| Internazionale | Christian Vieri | £31 | 1999 | Zlatan Ibrahimović | £59 | 2009 |
| Juventus | Gianluigi Buffon | £38 | 2001 | Zinedine Zidane | £53 | 2001 |
| Liverpool | Andy Carroll | £35 | 2011 | Fernando Torres | £50 | 2011 |
| Manchester United | Dimitar Berbatov | £30.75 | 2008 | Cristiano Ronaldo | £80 | 2009 |
| Milan | Rui Costa | £30 | 2001 | Kaká | £56 | 2009 |
| Real Madrid | Cristiano Ronaldo | £80 | 2009 | Robinho | £32.5 | 2008 |
A club may sign a pre-contract with a player while he is still with another club, by which the player agrees to move to the club at a future date, for example, after his contract with his current club expires.
Another situation may be where the current club is also a party to the pre-contract, and the transfer is conditional, for example, on a fee being agreed between the clubs or terms being agreed between the player and the new club, or the transfer is intended to take effect only after the player reaches a certain age.
The pre-contract is intended to prevent a third club from signing the player while details are still being negotiated or when the future date arrives.
As the player's registration remains with the current club, however, the existence of a pre-contract may be unknown to other clubs who wish to sign the player.
If a professional football player transfers to another club during the course of a contract, 5% of any transfer fee, not including training compensation paid to his former club, shall be deducted from the total amount of this compensation and distributed by the new club as a solidarity contribution to the club(s) involved in his training and education over the years.
This solidarity contribution reflects the number of years he was registered with the relevant club(s) between the seasons of his 12th and 23rd birthdays, as follows:
| Season of birthday | % of compensation | % of total fee |
|---|---|---|
| 12th | 5% | 0.25% |
| 13th | 5% | 0.25% |
| 14th | 5% | 0.25% |
| 15th | 5% | 0.25% |
| 16th | 10% | 0.50% |
| 17th | 10% | 0.50% |
| 18th | 10% | 0.50% |
| 19th | 10% | 0.50% |
| 20th | 10% | 0.50% |
| 21st | 10% | 0.50% |
| 22nd | 10% | 0.50% |
| 23rd | 10% | 0.50% |
| Total | 100% | 5% |