March 9 – FIFA is reportedly poised to allow member nations to buy and sell players up until the start of October to account for the disruption caused by Covid-19.
This would mean an extra-long summer transfer window which leagues will be permitted to start four weeks before the completion of their respective delayed calendar.
Covid-19 has thrown the usual summer window into disarray with months of action put on hold. If the latest reports are correct, Germany, where fixtures have already resumed, and France – where the season has been terminated – would technically be free to start trading any time now.
However, players who complete transfers this season will not be allowed to play for their new clubs in the ongoing extended 2019-20 campaign, almost certainly including the Champions League.
As things stand, the Premier League, La Liga and Serie A are all expected to resume their respective seasons this month and cram remaining fixtures into around six weeks to ensure they can be wrapped up by the end of July to make way for the resumption of UEFA’s competitions.
With the final few rounds of the Champions League and Europa League taking place in August and the start of the 2020/21 campaign likely to be some time in September, clubs would have precious little time to do deals. Hence FIFA’s apparent concession in order to still allow for a 12-week window.
According to Sky, there is general consensus that the deadline for the window slamming shut should be Friday, October 2, though Serie A has already set its window as between September 1 and October 5.
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