The dust has finally settled on summer transfer window after the Premier League, EFL agreed to fix it between July 27 to October 5.
With the Premier League to be ended on July 26, clubs in the English top flights will start planning 24 hours later as they will be aiming to reinforce their squad.
Although the date is subject to the approval of FIFA, the stakeholders agreed that the window open July 27 and close 10 weeks later at 11 pm on Monday, October 5. The agreement was reached following consultation with the EFL.
No transfer between Premier League clubs after October 5
Meanwhile, there will also be a domestic-only window from October 5 and close on Friday, October 16 at 5 pm. This will allow transfer deals between Premier League clubs with EFL clubs. Premier League clubs, however, will not be able to do any transfer business between each other during this period. This allows EFL clubs to carry out further transactions for another fortnight and, in particular, loans with Premier League clubs.
With the date confirmed, Premier League clubs now have the opportunity of carrying out the vast majority of their business before UEFA’s October 6 deadline for Champions League and Europa League registrations.
A number of European leagues have already confirmed their summer window will close on October 5.
Any summer signings in the EFL before the completion of the Championship play-offs will not be eligible to play for their new club until season 2020-21 commences. The playoff holds at the end of July and into early August
With dates now confirmed for clubs in England, but there could be some difficulties before the closure of the windo.
This is because the transfer window dates are owned by the Football Association, and not specific to any one league.
Since FIFA allows up to 12 weeks for a ‘first registration period’ , which is traditionally a summer window, UEFA wants all players to be registered for next season’s Champions League and Europa League by October 6 as well.
This means that Premier League clubs would close their main window before that date because the October 5 deadline is also in line with other major European leagues. This means that it only going to use 10 of the available 12 weeks.
However, EFL clubs will be making use of the full allocation of FIFA, hence the agreement reached for Premier League and EFL clubs to trade players until 5pm on October 16.
