As January comes to an end, we’re right amidst the craziness that is Transfer Deadline Day. As clubs scramble to pull the trigger and reinforce their squads, various agents earn their corn by hawking their clients to all and sundry, while players are ready at the wheel of their vehicles to reach thier new clubs and put pen to paper.
The biggest spoke in the wheel for the machinations of this manic day is the variety of the leagues involved in different countries across different time zones. However, attempts have been made to provide some leeway for the clubs involved, as Football associations of various countries have relaxed the rule slightly.
The biggest change to the January transfer window this year has been the date. In previous years, the window has ended on January 31st, but with the same date falling on a Sunday this year, most leagues have changed the deadline to Monday, the 1st of February, so as to facilitate payments made through banks which might have stayed closed on the Sunday.
The Spanish FA were scheduled to close their window yesterday, but have changed their deadline to fall in line with the other leagues across Europe, with the slightly unforgiving view being that they have extended the deadline to accomodate Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid, both the subject of transfer bans by FIFA.
The transfer deadline broken down
Here are the deadlines across Europe’s major leagues
| Country | Time | Date |
|---|---|---|
| England | 11 pm GMT | February 1 |
| Scotland | 12 am GMT | February 2 |
| Spain | 11 pm GMT | February 1 |
| France | 11 pm GMT | February 1 |
| Italy | 10 pm GMT | February 1 |
| Germany | 5 pm GMT | February 2 |
| Portugal | 11 pm GMT | February 4 |
Italy are ending an hour early, while Pep Guardiola has an entended window, having an extra 18 hours to reinforce Bayern Munich than his continental rivals.
Ideally, all deadline day deals have to be logged into FIFA’s Transfer Matching System (TMS) before the respective association’s deadline. However, club’s have some leeway for deals made extremely late, as they can enter relevant details into a ‘deal sheet’ two hours before their deadline, thus affording them four hours to complete the paperwork.
For clubs in England, Spain and France, this means that they ought to submit the ‘deal sheet’ by 9pm before the final deadline of 1am allows thems four hours to complete the paperwork, something Manchester United and Real Madrid fell afoul of last summer, when the transfer of David de Gea was botched up by the two clubs.
