Premier League approve transfer rule change starting next season

This could change things significantly.

Currently, the transfer window in England closes at the end of August, after the Premier League season has already started.

This year the transfer window closed on August 30, meaning clubs could still add to their squad after playing two Premier League games.

This season, Aaron Ramsdale, Eddie Nketiah, Manuel Ugarte, Raheem Sterling and Jadon Sancho all signed for their new clubs after the season had already started.

However, executives from the European Club Association, which represents clubs from England, Spain, Germany, Italy and France are all keen to secure a future where players can't be signed after the start of the domestic campaign.

It would mean that the transfer deadline next summer would be August 15 as the Premier League League begins on the weekend of August 16.

According to Chris Woerts, former director of Sunderland, that plan was supposed to come into place this season but didn’t due to the precarious situation at Barcelona regarding the registering of players. This forced La Liga to pull out of the deal.

Woerts sits on the ECA board and is an influential figure in the Dutch Eredivisie.

Woerts spoke about the decision to implement this plan saying: “The clubs are working hard to get the decision made on this within the entire ECA. Next year the transfer window must close on August 15, before the leagues kick off.

“Everyone is getting frustrated and annoyed by the fact that players are still being sold for weeks while the competitions have started.

“One major club in Spain caused a problem so it couldn’t happen this year. That was FC Barcelona. Because of all their financial problems, they were not able to make moves on the transfer market until a very late stage. So they broke the pact of the ‘Big Five’.”

The transfer dates for the mid-season market have already been agreed between the leagues.

The Premier League, together with La Liga, the Bundesliga, Ligue 1 and Serie A, will open their transfer windows on January 1 as normal with all five leagues agreeing to close their windows on February 3.