DC Sports: Soccer Transfer Madness

BY DC CUEVA

> @DC408dxtr / @DC408dxnow

If you're a sports fan, and especially one of a particular team sport, there's nothing like the boredom of an offseason with no games scheduled in that league on a given night. But there's solstice that comes either during the winter around the hotstove in baseball or the summer in the NFL, NBA and NHL. That would be the buzz and speculation of never-ending rumors and happenings in player movement: free agency, trades, re-signings, contract negotiations and beyond. No doubt, this brings a sense of relief to fans with something to talk about as they await training camp, preseason and the regular season.

If you follow the sport the world calls football that we here in America call soccer, this world of player comings and goings is known as the transfer market, and the prizes that go to those clubs lucky to receive them are "transfers." This topic of transactions in the world's most popular sport is as buzzed about to football fans worldwide as blockbuster trades are to sports fans here, and with good reason. Not a day or week goes by, most particularly during the offseason of the European leagues in the summer and later for one month during the winter, that talk of a player being transferred to another club becomes big story news.

   International media keep their eye out all season for anything that can happen to top players going from a big league in one country to another, while social media has made these stories even bigger. And as much as trade deadline day and day 1 of free agency is a huge deal here, it's the same thing when you witness the final days of the transfer windows at summer's end and later in January: activity being abuzz between clubs before the period is closed and clubs must deal with who they have.

   Yes, it's transfer madness in the world of association football, and just recently on September 1st saw the close of the latest transfer window that saw both last-minute deals and never ending speculation taking place around the soccer world. And if you thought that the hot stove leagues that dominate the baseball offseason, or the always interesting NBA summer of transactions is something, then wait until you see what it's like for those who follow the world game.

In its Wikipedia entry, the definition of "transfer" reads: "the action taken whenever a player under contract moves between clubs...the transferring of a player's registration from one club to another." In a way, this is very much similar to what you'd find here in North America of players going from team to team, and it attracts the same kind of huge attention from both fans and media, as well as endless amounts of rumors. But there's a catch... In fact, make that two twists.

   First, unlike in the NBA, MLB, NFL or NHL where teams essentially trade existing player deals that are already in place, in the transfer market when a player moves to a new club their old deal is terminated and negotiate a new contract with the club they're moving to. And two, soccer players can only be transferred during one of two transfer windows that take place during the year according to the rules set forth by a governing body, instead of it taking place throughout the season except in its last few weeks of the regular season.

   In most cases, the team who becomes the new home of a particular player pay the former club a compensation cash payment known as a transfer fee. This is the equivalent of a team getting cash, draft picks and players in return for trading away a huge, big-name player here, though some transfers include offering another player on their squad as part of the deal too.

HISTORY

England is where the professional game can trace its beginnings to, and that's where the idea of a transfer in football began when The Football Association introduced player registration in 1885, back when players were allowed to play one of more games for any club. After the governing body of the sport in its homeland recognized professionalism that year, it began to control the pros via that player registration system and required players to register with a club each season, even if he was on the squad the previous season; if he hasn't registered he wouldn't be allowed to play. Once he had signed up with that team, he wasn't allowed to play or register for another club during the same season without the consent of the F.A. and his current club. But the players were given freedom to join another club before the start of each season, even if his former club wanted to retain him.

   Three years later in 1888 came the formation of the Football League, the world's oldest soccer league, and with it came restrictions being placed a few seasons later on the richer clubs' ability of luring away players from other teams to prevent it being dominated by a handful of clubs and ensure competitive balance. By 1893, it became FL policy that once a player became registered with a club, he remains the sole property of that team - even after the deal expired - and would only bail out of it with their permission. The club is not required to play them, but without a deal in place would not receive a salary. It also became a fact that if a club wanted a player, they could demand and earn a transfer fee from any other club as a return consideration for agreeing to do so. This was known as the "retain and transfer system," and was in place until a British High Court case in 1963 removed the "retain" part of the system.
   This was status quo for all player transactions in English football until three years after the Premier League began play. In 1995, a former Belgian player, Jean-Marc Bosman, and who was looking to move to a French team after his deal expired but whose team refused to pay the new team a £500k fee, won a landmark court case after a lengthy battle where a European court ruled that players should legally be free to move once their contract had expired. The "Bosman transfer" system, as it is known now 20 years now, became the game-changer for the sport, in much the same way that free agency helped create new competition for teams on our side on the Atlantic.

   The first star footballer to take advantage of this new way of going to a new club freely was Edgar Davids, who departed Dutch side Ajax for Italy, first at A.C. Milan and then to Serie A rival Juventus. Meanwhile in Spain, Luis Enrique made fans of Real Madrid feel jealous when he jumped ship after his deal with them ended and signed with El Clasico blood rival Barcelona where he had far greater success. And the most infamous one is in the EPL, where Sol Campbell defected from Tottenham Hotspur where he played in 255 matches to London rivals Arsenal where he won two Premier League winner's medals.

   The Bosman ruling also changed how foreign players can play in leagues outside their native homeland. Before that, European clubs were limited in how many foreign players they could have on their squads, and could have only three in European competition, much to FIFA's chagrin. This changed the complexity of how teams pick their starters, where Chelsea shortly became the first to field an all-foreign 11 player starting lineup, nearly a year after Aston Villa fielded the EPL's last all-English squad. By 2007, foreign players in the Premier League and Germany's Bundesliga league comprised more than half (57%) of the player roll-call, compared to 30's in Spain, France and Italy.

   Prior to the 2002-03 season came another twist to this wild and wacky world: though some leagues had already implemented that practice, UEFA made the transfer window the continental law of the land. European football's governing body felt it was time to spread the window to all countries as a way to help ease confusion of player movement, and also make it fair for smaller clubs since they felt it wasn't feasible for a team to survive a season post-transfer. The policy is simple: most national leagues in Europe have two windows in the summer and in the winter by which players can be purchased. Club chairmen in England as well as FIFA were relented a bit about the proposal but they were forced to accept the new laws. Later, loan laws were updated, as were ownership by third parties of players, for which all of them will be explained a little later here.

NEED TO KNOW

Soccer's transfer market is broad and complex, and can involve any player, or even any manager too. Current EPL managers José Mourinho, Brendan Rogers and Roberto Martinez were involved in high profile signings for the most-coveted jobs on any football team. But of course, it's the players who make the plays and are always the focus.

   This long process begins with clubs sending the league all the documents related to the transfer, such as a player contract, transfer agreement, a country work permit if needed, and international clearance if the player is located abroad. Just like what we have here when there's trades and signings here, any transfer isn't made official until all the signing work has been done, and players passing a physical examination. 

   A number of high profile transfers got derailed in the physical room, most notably Ruud van Nistelrooy when he appeared to go from PSV in French Liege 1 to Manchester United in 2000, only for knee problems encountered just before being introduced at Old Trafford sidelined him for the season and postponed his arrival by one year.

   But for those that do pass those physicals, then it goes to the documents. When the deadline approaches, the league's Football Department works late into the night to make sure everything is checked with the clubs and that it meets national, league and FIFA regulations...yes, all of them until every last bit is accounted for. They then register the paperwork into the related authorities and then it's a matter of time before it becomes a fact of life. And yes, it can be sent via fax machines in addition to emails during crunch time.

   If the transfer is an international one where a player goes from a club overseas into one in another country, the buying and selling clubs must register into onto the FIFA Transfer Matching System in order for that international clearance to go through. The buyers must upload the player's info, where the receiving team have to match it up. The two national associations will need clearance and time when necessary, and will inform the club and league when that's processed.

   And on the magic deadline day, it's often that clubs will conclude deals at the last minute to the excitement of media and fans alike, but it's not easy for them to get all the required paperwork in by the deadline. A "deal sheet" is provided that enables a team confirm that a deal has been reached in order to allow for added time to enter the remaining documentation. It usually comes about two hours before the deadline, and clubs have until two hours after the close to make a domestic transfer, or before midnight if it's an international one. Should there be a problem and the deadline passes, a time extension may be granted by the authorities.

The Transfer window, as it's unofficially known in the media for what's known by its actual name of "registration period," is the period in the year by which a club can transfer players from other countries or other clubs within their own country into their team. Such transactions are completed by registering him into the club through the game's overarching governing body, FIFA. The window was introduced with the notion in mind that teams' stability would be improved and prevent agents from looking for deals both during the season and over the offseason. Also, the windows make sure that all clubs are given a fairer shake and integrity is maintained throughout the season, which prevents a stronger club from poaching away players from a weaker club near the end of the season, hence the two windows.
   By rule, each national association chooses the time of the offseason transfer window, lasting 12 weeks and lasting during the summer in European leagues and the winter in MLS. The second, midseason window takes place at approximately halfway through the league season and can last a maximum of one month, January in much of Europe and summer in the Americas. And as in the NBA when free agent deals are not made official until mid-July after the period begins on July 1, deals can be made just as soon as the season concludes but can't be put on paper until the formal opening of the window that same Canada Day. Having the windows make sure clubs maintain stability for both the players and clubs while still having room for movement during those two windows.
   Of course, all eyes are on that last day of the window, Transfer Deadline Day, when the window closes - generally Sept. 1st for summer and Jan. 31 for winter. Just as is the case with Trade Deadline Day here, this is always one of the year's most-buzzed about days for fans and one of the busiest days for the teams and those involved. There's always a whole flurry of transfers taking place with a great number of interdependent deals being made resembling what we'd find on Black Friday at the mall, generating so much media interest and of course lots of rumors. And yes, should transfer deadline day falls on a weekend or a holiday, for business reasons it can be extended to the following Monday. All this comes despite calls for the window to come to revert back to its previous system.

WHAT IS A LOAN? A FREE AGENT? A BAN?

We all know about loans when it comes to mortgage and housing, but a loan means something else in soccer. It's when a certain player is being allowed to temporarily play for a club other than the one he's currently contracted to. Deals involving loans can last only from a short, few weeks term to a full season, to even a few seasons.

   There are several reasons for these loans, where the most common of which is for when young players are loaned to a lower-league club to gain valuable first team experience, much like what we see in baseball's minor leagues and the NBA D-League. The parent club will continue to foot the whole bill of the player's wages, while some teams have feeder club arrangements with clubs overseas. In Italy and other leagues, smaller clubs have taken a cue from its American counterparts in taking the term "farm team" to great extent as they've become popular destinations for younger loaned footballers. 

   A club may prefer to take a player on loan if they're cash-strapped or as just a temporary cover for any injuries or suspensions that might affect them. The parents could demand a fee, or the loaners pay some of the wages during that time, or loan a player to save cash or just a rehab assignment before going back to play after an injury.

   Now the fun part...karma. In 2003, the EPL lifted a ban forbidding clubs loaning players within England's top flight. The head of the Professional Footballers Association, the EPL's equivalent to the NFLPA, feared that this would dilute the sport's competitive element. Just months later, Newcastle United striker Lomama LuaLua was given a 3-month, £100k loan to EPL side Portsmouth, and in their first match scored a last-minute equalizer against his former club in a 1-1 draw; he then apologized to fans of the black & white stripes. Shortly after that kiss of death, an amendment was added to prevent loaned players from playing their parent club in EPL play but not in a Cup fixture; and two years ago the F.L. clubs closed a loophole preventing one of their sides from loaning players overseas.

   And yes, while free agency is a much bigger deal here, there is in fact a free agent in association football, though not perhaps as hugely publicized as the transfer signings. Per Wiki, their definition of it is, "either a player that has been released by a club and now is no longer affiliated with any club, or a player whose contract with his or her current club has expired and is thus free to join to any other club under the terms of the Bosman ruling." Free agents don't have to be signed during the transfer windows and should they be signed up, that team doesn't have to pay any fees, a'la "a free transfer."
   Elsewhere after the Bosman ruling, pre-contracts became more commonplace. These deals means it's a player agreement where he agrees to take his registration at a later date, and it's more common when he's with another club and can move to his new club in the future, typically after his current deal expires. A player can sign a deal with a new club up to six months before his existing one expires at his present one; which means he can wrap up his current stint towards the end of the season for a struggling team and begin a new one without missing any games.

   Now, if a team needs to sign players outside of the transfer window, it is allowed on an emergency basis, and this typically comes if they don't have a goalkeeper available; special permission from their competition's governing body is required. Regardless of deals, by rule a 5% solidarity contribution of any transfer fee is paid by the new club to the old club in his training and education during his time there. Plus, there's training compensation paid to a player's training club when a young player signs his first deal and until he turns 23.

But now the difficult part...what happens if something happens to a club that is detrimental to the sport? There are punishments the international football bureaucracy can hand down on a team for bad behavior, and one method of FIFA sanctions is a transfer ban. There, clubs are not allowed to acquire players from the transfer market or take part in a window for anywhere from a few months to even a few years. Rules infractions such as signing overseas players still under a deal with their club, unpaid debts from transfer fee payments, late wage payments, under-age registration or violating fair-play regulations. Barcelona was the most-affected top club for being dealt this blow for those under-age signings which led to the club's image being shattered, but after signing Luis Suarez after their two-window sanction was lifted, a season before redeeming itself with a European treble. A number of other top clubs including Scottish Rangers and Hearts, Chelsea and Roma of Italian Serie A have also been given transfer bans in recent years.

WHAT CHANGES?

Recent years has seen high profile players go from one big team in one country to another in another country in the eight figures...it's certainly a far cry from when transfers of key players were only in the tens of thousands of dollars. World Cup hero Diego Maradona was the first to be transferred for world record fees in the millions from Argentina to Barcelona and then to Italy in the 80's. The next decade saw Alan Shearer and Ronaldo move for $30 million U.S., followed by Luis Figo moving from FC Barca to Real Madrid for more than double that amount, and later French World Cup goat Zinedine Zidane for £46 million to go there from Juventus.

   Of course, Real's two best-known players were brought to the world's most-followed football club by way of two record signings: Christiano Ronaldo for €80 million from Manchester United in 2009, and Gareth Bale from Spurs four years later for the first-ever €100 million transfer fee, and marked his first season there by scoring the winning goal in the final of their 2014 Champions League triumph. In response, bitter rivals Barcelona lured in from Liverpool Luis Suárez for €94 million after the World Cup, the third-biggest ever fee ever, and Real responded by signing James Rodriguez from France Ligue 1 for €79.5 million in this constant game of chess between the two El Clasico combatants.
   Another high-profile transfer came a year earlier, also involving La Liga's two top clubs and the process was much longer than normal. This saw attention turn to Brazilian side Santos and star 18-year-old striker Neymar, who was previously the target of not only Real and Barca but also Chelsea, but the Brazilian signed a deal to stay in South America and rejected deals from those clubs in order to hone his craft close to home. But in summer 2013, Barcelona finally gained the upper hand in signing Neymar for 5 years for an undisclosed fee, later being revealed as a €57.1 million fee well after he was introduced to 56,000 at Camp Nou Stadium. However off-field, a legal case ensued between Santos and Barca over the exact T.F. amount being paid to his former club and fund misappropiration, which was actually €74 million. FCB denied wrongdoing but led to its club president resigning and a tax fraud charge.
   Of course, the rise in the money shelled out in those transfer fees the last 25 years can be attributed to one thing: the upward swing in television rights fees and sponsorship. The Premier League is the world's most-watched league and have recently received record rights fees from Britain's SKY Sports and BT Sport, as well as NBC here in America, among others. The UEFA Champions League is also as prestigious, also landing record TV rights deals in Britain and other territories; so does Spain's La Liga and other premier soccer leagues. The wide reach of these properties and the exposure the game has worldwide has made the allure of money in football so big in the transfer market.

   There has also been significant changes to the policies as well, starting in 2006 when West Ham United got a leg up on their EPL rivals in signing two Argentina stars Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano from Corinthians of the Brazilian league for an undisclosed fee and rumors began over who owned the rights to the players. A year later the Hammers were hammered by the League with a record £5.5 million fine for breaching rules involving third-party ownership of players that could have a direct impact on team performance. Tevez later scored the goal that gave West Ham safety in the league when they were flirting with relegation into the Championship, while the team he put into the second tier Sheffield United then sued WH but settled out of court. Later, Mascherano would leave to join Liverpool midseason while Tevez later went to both Manchester United and then Man City. And shortly thereafter, third-party ownership became a thing of the past in the Premier League, and looks certain to become that way in the rest of football along with co-ownership.

So, there you go, the wild world of the transfer market in football. And if we only thought that transferring from one college to another was something in college football here, it's even more wilder when top players are going from England to Spain and other countries, and vice versa. It's the thing that drives fans and media crazy to see which player will go where next. That's only part of what makes soccer a great sport, both on and off the pitch.

As we wrap this DC Sports post, we're now just beginning our wall-to-wall coverage of the MTV Trifecta of Are You The One? and The Challenge/Real World franchise. As mentioned in our last post, it's our NFL/EPL on here as since this site launched in 2013, DCBLOG has devoted time and resources to covering the three shows I love on here, with weekly & wide-ranging posts and a majority of blog traffic driven to here by my links to them on DC Twitter (@DC408dxtr).

- In case you missed it, coinciding with the cast being revealed prior to VMA week, we kicked off our coverage with a Blog preview looking at all of the 20 singles who have traveled to Hawaii to search for love and money in the most unique dating show of its kind. Plus, we discussed the game-changing twist coming to the new season and also provided a follow-up on how Team MTV spent their offseason, which includes lots of babies for fellow alumni. Check it out here.

- Plus, AYTO host Ryan Devlin talked to blog site Talk Nerdy to Us about what to expect in season 3, how he got the hosting gig, behind the scenes scoop, his business venture and acting resume. Check it out at talknerdywithus.com, and watch for this site here for upcoming Trifecta posts as we work our way towards premiere night of Thursday, September 24.

- To help further advance our already top-notch coverage, I'm introducing DC WRAP, now separate from my signature SocialPulse diaries, for those of you who want just a simple wrap-up and analysis of the episodes rather than jog all the way down through the tweets for them as in the past. I plan on also posting quote pics of social media's best on both my Instagram and on Twitter as a way to help drive more people to this site, as well as excerpts on my Tumblr page dc408dxtr.tumblr.com.

- And I'm also considering giving fans an even more regular voice on DCBLOG during the season in a mini DC FORUM section of the WRAP just for them to discuss the episodes and more. I'll be reaching out to fellow hosts Andrew Kirk, Brian Cohen, Ali Lasher and Reality Radio to take part, and expect to hear them and others right here during the season, as well as on their shows and blogs too.

Also, on VMA night I also announced the destination for the upcoming vacation I will be taking during this busy, upcoming fall season that I have planned. Once again, as it was in 2013, I'll be traveling to Las Vegas in October, and you can expect multi-platform coverage of it on my visual platforms of Instagram, Snapchat, Vine and Flickr, along with DCNOW.

For now, our focus is on sports and entertainment before the Trifecta cycle begins and the countdown to DC Vegas reaches overdrive. As always, make sure to follow my social media platforms below:

- First, follow my dedicated live tweet hub, DCNOW at Twitter @DC408DxNow. This summer, the Summer of Sports has witnessed every big event on there, and the fall will be a good one as well with NFL action, baseball races and postseason, the NBA and NHL seasons beginning, NASCAR and golf winding down, and UFC and boxing too. We'll have a special DC SocialPulse post here looking back at this sporting summer to wrap up our Summer of a Sports coverage here soon.

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- Of course, there's also a packed live tweet TV slate, which in addition to the Trifecta includes HBO's Hard Knocks with the Texans which concludes tonight, CMT's docu-series Gainesville, Teen Mom, and just added a unique look at the lifestyle of web star Todrick. I'll also be doing season 31 of Survivor, Follow the Rules with Ja Rule and more. 

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Again, thanks for joining us for this look at the crazy and twisted world of soccer's transfer market as the Summer of Sports winds down. Make sure to join me on DCNOW tonight for the Hard Knocks finale at 7PM Pacific/10PM Eastern, and follow me at my social media platforms above. Until we talk again here, thanks for reading and hope you enjoyed your summer.

- I AM DC


Acknowledgements: Wikipedia: Transfer (association football) and associated articles; PremierLeague.com