In February of this year, FIFA president Gianni Infantino announced that he wanted to make big changes to FIFA's rules regarding the transfer of players.
On September 13, FIFA circulated proposals to key stakeholders, including plans for a new central clearinghouse that would be responsible for processing payments for all cross-border transfers, including commissions paid to agents. Perhaps the most notable proposal is the potential introduction of a form of salary-cap limiting the amount clubs would be able to spend on players to give smaller teams a better chance of competing. Both a form of luxury tax and salary-cap based on a percentage of a team's revenue have been proposed. Either of these proposals, even if accepted by FIFA, are unlikely to be adopted within the coming few years.
However, proposed changes that could take immediate effect include limiting the number of players teams can register to their rosters and the number of players that can be loaned. Since becoming president of FIFA, Gianni Infantino has stressed the importance of making changes to the transfer rules, which have remained largely untouched since their original drafting. It is no coincidence that FIFA has decided to address the transfer system now, following Neymar's record setting $262 million transfer to Paris Saint-Germain in 2017.
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This article was written with contributions from Tim Piscatelli.
