22 August 2008
Timing of transfer windows all wrong

NEIL DONCASTER, NCFC CHIEF EXECUTIVE

At last Friday's Colney training centre press briefing, Glenn Roeder took a moment to give the assembled representatives from the media his considered views on the transfer window - views which will no doubt strike a chord with many supporters.

He said, “I don't think there should be transfer windows, full stop . . . It is a restriction on the movement of the workforce . . . I think it's poor practice and I think one day it will be challenged.”

It is difficult to remember a world before transfer windows, yet it is actually only in 2002 that transfer windows were made obligatory by FIFA, football's world governing body, and rolled out across the English professional game in time for the start of the 2002/2003 season.

The two transfer windows run from the end of a season until August 31, and between January 1 and 31, and clubs are prevented from conducting any transfer business outside of those windows. This summer though, because August 31 falls on a Sunday, the transfer window has been extended to midnight on September 1.

The whole concept of transfer windows came about in the year 2000 as a compromise between FIFA and the EC, after the latter, apparently concerned by spiralling transfer fees, threatened to impose their own transfer system. At the time, the European Union's competition commissioner, Mario Monti was threatening to outlaw transfer fees entirely, saying that they broke EU rules on fair competition and free movement of workers across Europe.

With Mario Monti's plan seemingly to allow all players to walk away from clubs at any time during their contracts, the whole concept of a player being 'under contract' at a club was then under very real threat. In that context, it is perhaps easier to see why football's governing bodies signed up to something that is now so unpopular with so many people involved with the game.

Of course, like any other innovation, transfer windows are not universally hated. John Barnwell, then chief of the League Managers' Association and himself a former manager, came out strongly in favour of the windows in an interview with The Guardian in 2006, saying “I believe the window is vital for the game's future.” His arguments seem to have been based on the belief that transfer windows encourage investment in youth and place a greater emphasis on the skill of a manager, rather than the spending power they can bring to bear in the transfer market.

But Mr Barnwell cuts a relatively lone voice in the football world. A host of big names have all come out strongly against transfer windows. The 72 Football League clubs were unanimous in their opposition to windows, with chief operating officer Andy Williamson calling their introduction a “mistake”. Seeing a 30pc drop in the value of domestic player sales, Williamson expressed a heartfelt fear that the rules undermined our domestic transfer system and threatened a bleak financial future for smaller clubs in particular. Steve Coppell, Reading's manager, reported in The Times, said: “I cannot see the logic in a transfer window. It brings on a fire-sale mentality, causes unrest via the media and means clubs buy too many players.”

The fact that so many big transfers have happened on the final day of a window (Wayne Rooney to Manchester United, Michael Owen to Newcastle, and West Ham's infamous deadline day double coup in bringing Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano to Upton Park, to name but a few) is also a cause for concern. Not least in Portsmouth, where the confusion over Benjani's sale to Manchester City and simultaneous purchase of Jermaine Defoe a few minutes before midnight, led to more than a few anxious moments down at Fratton Park when the Premier League initially said that the Benjani transfer paperwork was not in order.

Love it or loathe it, it seems that transfer windows are here to stay - for the time being at least. They are certainly an imperfect and heavy-handed solution to the EC's concerns about freedom of movement - much as the Bosman ruling was, way back in December 1995. But they are at least clear as to how they operate and clubs know what they can and can't do well in advance of the windows closing.

For me though, what is most frustrating about the way the rules operate, is the timing. With the window closing three weeks after the season has started, managers simply are not able to put the finishing touches to their squads before the season starts. And with selling clubs so keen to exploit the 'auction' that inevitably arises with buying clubs trying to compete for scarce talent, transfer windows seem to lead inexorably to higher prices.

In this column, I have consistently bemoaned the increasing gap between the haves and the have-nots in football - a chasm that shows no signs of narrowing. To many observers, transfer windows seem to be just exacerbating the problem.